Liar in a Little Plaid Skirt
by Neon Dandelion
Summary: This is definitely not how Ty Lee imagined meeting her girlfriend's father would go. Azula x Ty Lee AU.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: **This is a dreaded Modern AU, I forewarn you. But the image of Azula and Ty Lee secretly hooking up in school uniforms has been stuck in my brain for like a week now. However, it takes place in the Avatar Universe, with bending, the royals, and other aspects of the series, _but _the setting is a 2015-esque world.  
It was a oneshot, and is now continuing.  
This started T rated, but now is M for moderate sexual content and drug abuse.  
I also forewarn you that this a combo of 80's Movie Campiness, and the 90210 and Gossip Girl genre of awful and amoral rich teens (it's centered around Azula, I mean...), and is a bit satirical of itself. However, I do have a serious plot, and character/relationship development.

* * *

**Liar in a Little Plaid Skirt**

* * *

**Book One: Junior Year**

* * *

**Part One: Fall**

* * *

**Chapter One**

* * *

Two girls step into a nearly empty penthouse, large, exquisitely furnished and illuminated by the lights of the city. It is already dark out, as it is mid-autumn already, and Azula is only just making it home from school, dragging her girlfriend along with her, with the promises that they would be alone, and be able to indulge in something quite interesting. Ty Lee half imagined she would be taken to the palace, although she does recall it being exclusively for political work and the royals not living in it.

Ty Lee looks around. She has never been to Azula's house before, although she herself lives in an expensive house in the Upper West Side of Caldera Metropolis City and she has been inside of many, given her elite social group of friends. But this is a new level of decadence. Hues of red, gold and black are all perfectly matched in a beautiful apartment centralized around an electric fireplace.

On the mantlepiece are only pictures of Azula. Not her brother, nor her deceased mother, or even her father. Just Azula. Ty Lee's pictures have to fight for space, even if people could recognize which girl was which.

Azula grabs Ty Lee's slender, smooth wrist and tugs her down the hall towards her bedroom.

"So, he's definitely not home?" Ty Lee asks hesitantly as she tosses her bright pink, ruffled backpack with the cartoon turtleducks on it into the corner of Azula's bedroom.

"I would not lie about that," Azula purrs in response, shutting the door with her heel and sitting down on the foot of her bed. "I would be in just as much trouble as you are."

Ty Lee grimaces. "I find that kind of hard to believe."

"Relax," Azula says sweetly, seizing Ty Lee's blood red school tie and pulling her into a kiss that makes their teeth smash together. "I am completely in control."

"Mmm?" Ty Lee quite likes the sound of that.

Their hips are linked, heat surging between both of them, Azula's hand sliding up along the smooth thigh of her counterpart, pushing the black and red plaid skirt up, up, up and...

_Crash, click... _and Ty Lee pulls apart from Azula, and a _riiiiip _is contributed to the sounds that interrupted their heated make-out session. And _there _goes Ty Lee's only not-stained white blouse. Azula tries not to look stunned as she pulls Ty Lee back to her, quite enjoying the new, exposed view.

"Who's there?" Ty Lee asks, her heart pounding and Azula sighs.

"We're probably being robbed. There _are _soldiers and secret service outside; it's probably one of them," Azula replies softly as she kisses Ty Lee's neck. It gently escalates to soft moaning and the utter bliss of being alone together.

Ozai has returned early from work, meetings with the Northern Water Tribe and other important affairs, and although he is known for remaining in his office at the palace until three in the morning during this time of year. Azula is home; no one else is. It is then that he hears something relatively disturbing, that would be any father's absolute worst fear.

_Moaning_.

Azula and Ty Lee are leaning on the side of Azula's bed at this point, having slid down from their perch on the mattress. Things are progressing at a rate that is both thrilling and terrifying to both of them when there is a knock on the door.

"Azula, open your door," comes the last voice Ty Lee ever wanted to hear.

"I'm not wearing any clothes!" Azula shrieks as she pushes Ty Lee onto the floor and stands up.

Ozai hesitates, sincerely hoping there is not some adolescent boy in there _also _not wearing any clothes. Ty Lee is on the verge of a panic attack as Azula pulls on a bathrobe, ties it tightly and opens the door.

"This is Ty Lee," Azula says, gesturing to the girl with Azula's blankets draped over her body. "She's my friend from school and we're having a sleepover and watching movies."

This is definitely not how Ty Lee imagined meeting her girlfriend's father would go. Here he is, the most powerful man in all Four Nations, and Ty Lee is half naked on Azula's floor, desperately trying to pretend she was not about to lose her virginity to his daughter.

When he sees it is just some girl from Azula's school, the Fire Lord is relieved, he supposes. He looks between them, still picking up on the unsettlingly sexual nature of their flushed cheeks. But Azula has only one friend; the grim, sullen girl he so dislikes seeing her with. He should, he supposes, encourage a friendship with someone who looks a tad more... wholesome (or at least wears make-up).

"She can join us for dinner, if she would like," Ozai says before closing the door and removing himself from the situation. Princess Azula dares to breathe a small sigh of relief.

Ty Lee looks at Azula, her coral pink lips opening and closing with no sound coming out.

"Relax," Azula says, smirking at Ty Lee. "He never has to know."

And then Ty Lee rubs her lips together and dares to say, "What if I _want _him to know?"

Azula scoffs and crosses her arms. "Why would you _want _that? I doubt my father will allow me to date until he's dead. And I... I... li... I _want _you. I want you and I hate admitting I want things, alright? And _more _than that I hate not getting what I want."

Ty Lee feels her cheeks flush not with the rush of near sex, but with the sensation of Azula actually expressing her desires. Her _romantic _desires.

"Well," Ty Lee says, standing up, unabashed of her body half clad in a school uniform and half in a frilly pink bra, "I'm going to pretend that it's my first dinner meeting your father as your girlfriend. I think I can be really impressive."

Azula slowly shakes her head. "I think it'll be best if you say as little as possible. You aren't really my father's type, unless you're talking about the nineteen year old one night stands..."

"Relax," Ty Lee says with a grin and Azula struggles to swallow. "I am the epitome of perfect girlfriend. Or, well, _friend from school_. Soon enough, he'll be begging me to date you."

Azula cocks an eyebrow.

She thoroughly and utterly doubts that her girlfriend whom is only passing school because of her extreme adeptness at cheerleading and family fortune that purchased the new library will impress _Ozai_. However, Azula does appreciate the gesture, and the danger... oh, the danger is a bit thrilling. Azula has only ever played by the rules and been the perfect daughter, perfect student, perfect firebender, perfect _everything_. The idea of a secret, hot, fiery affair is... exalting.

"Either way, I will fuck you inappropriately hard afterwards and we can pretend we're discussing boys and make-up," Azula replies, her evil smirk widening.

Ty Lee cannot help but smirk in response.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N:**__ Alright, I have decided to continue this into a series. I've outlined it to 30 chapters. The first chapter has been changed a bit to fit in with the slight shift in the AU. As a oneshot, I was fine with writing Azula and Ty Lee completely detached from the Avatar Universe, but I decided to create my own universe that blends the Avatar world with 2015, and I incorporated as many of the themes from the series as I could, as well as bending, and made almost entirely my own setting. So, there are both smartphones and weird hybrid animals, football games and Agni Kais, fast sports cars and Four Nations, adolescent drama and racial tension between elements and I hope I managed to make that work.  
I've never been really into the teen contemporary thing, save for 80's movies, so a lot of this will probably be tongue in cheek homage to 80's films, and I'm going to try to turn as many Modern AU tropes on their head as possible. This isn't really my thing, but I really do have some plots for the plot and such.  
_

* * *

**Chapter Two**

* * *

In the exquisite penthouse of the Fire Nation Royal Family in Caldera Metropolis City, Ty Lee is in a bathroom that smells strongly of cinnamon, decorated in black granite and golden fixtures. She gazes into the mirror intently as she pulls on not torn clothes and props her foot up on the side of the bathtub to pull up her knee socks.

Afterwards, Ty Lee is trying her best not to panic as she emerges from Azula's bathroom in the hall to find her girlfriend sitting, slumped against the wall with her lips against her knee, waiting. A borrowed uniform shirt from Azula beneath the blazer, knee socks with a tear that was distinctly not there before they got so close to their first time.

"You look not completely fucked," Azula remarks, nodding once in haughty, detached approval. "Your hair, though..." _looks exactly like a woman emerging from someone's bed._

"I'll just tie it up," Ty Lee suggests as Azula slowly stands. Azula moves incredibly gracefully, yet with power and force, and Ty Lee has always been somewhat transfixed by it. She moves with the strength that possesses all of her actions, the strength of a prodigious firebender, perhaps the best in all of history.

She tugs the pink elastic off of her tan wrist and ties her hair, grinning at Azula with her perfect pink lips. Thick gloss is on them that Azula had to scrape off of herself as she removed all evidence of their tryst from within her bedroom.

As they enter the kitchen, Ty Lee is incredibly impressed. "It's so clean," she remarks softly, looking Azula up and down.

"I wouldn't know any different," Azula replies with a light and airy shrug.

They leave the spotless kitchen to see Ozai already awaiting them at the black table. Ty Lee touches the shine on it, startled. She has three maids and yet her house is almost never clean; eight children in her family, six identical, two younger. That is something that no maid can possibly control.

"So, your father owns Chimera Technologies?" Ozai asks and Ty Lee blinks several times. Azula grits her teeth and breathes in sharply like a dragon about to torch a village.

"Y-yes," Ty Lee replies, startled.

"You looked her up, didn't you?" Azula demands, trying not to sound too frustrated. She gestures for Ty Lee to sit at the table, and Ty Lee just stares for a moment, unsure where she is meant to take her seat.

Azula, seeing that discomfort, sits first, and Ty Lee places herself beside her secret girlfriend.

"Of course I took the liberty of looking her up. I don't want just _anyone _befriending my daughter," Ozai says calmly, flashing a slightly dangerous smile at Ty Lee that she cannot comprehend.

_Does he know? _throbs through Ty Lee's mind after she tries to deconstruct that look from his golden eyes.

"Tea or wine? Or water?" Fire Lord Ozai offers and Ty Lee looks like she is about to faint. Azula clears her throat and Ty Lee takes a deep breath.

"Tea, please," Ty Lee suggests, hoping that it is the right answer. Azula is still trying to summon the strength not to call her father out on intentionally intimidating their guest.

He brings a new meaning to _overprotective _father. Since mother died, she supposes.

"You're the head cheerleader at Sozin High?" Ozai inquires and Ty Lee chews on the inside of her cheek.

"Yes, sir... uh, your highness, uh..." Ty Lee feels like a fool. She is known for sliding smoothly into absolutely any social situation, but this is definitely uncomfortable for her.

"You're very good, then, I'm sure. And a gymnast with several medals?" Ozai replies and Ty Lee feverishly nods. "It's a shame Azula had no desire to join your team."

"It interfered with my firebending training, of course, father," Azula replies and Ty Lee looks between them with the expression of a terrified small animal. "But if I am capable with my schedule, I would appreciate being allowed to go to homecoming with she and Mai."

Ty Lee squints at Azula, now more surprised at her than she was at Ozai. _Homecoming_; did Princess Azula of the Fire Nation just ask Ty Lee to _homecoming_? Or was it just a throwaway comment? Welcome to the most confusing dinner _ever_.

"If you behave," Ozai replies and it is almost a joke. As if Azula would ever misbehave when her inheritance of the throne is on the line. "You look a bit Earth Kingdom," Ozai says and Azula swallows and breathes in and out slowly. "Are you mixed?"

"No... well, maybe way back during the war. But not significantly," Ty Lee says sweetly, very used to the question at this point.

"Not that I have a problem with any of my subjects or my allies' subjects. However, would I want my daughter to befriend an Earth Kingdom girl... no," Ozai replies as he continues to examine Ty Lee, picking her apart with his eyes and making her nervous. "I prefer my family clean."

Clean, clean of Earth Kingdom or Water Tribe. Ty Lee supposes it is unsurprising for Ozai. Most people who have their roots deep into the Fire Nation feel the same way, although he spends a lot of time talking about cooperation, and how the United Empire he built respects every culture as long as they live in harmony and obey his laws.

Ty Lee's family would probably rather die than see her date or befriend some boy or girl from the Water Tribes. However, she thinks they would be quite impressed if she wound up dating the princess of an empire. It would show them for thinking she is not smart enough or strong enough or _good enough_.

"You're also in your final year of school?" Fire Lord Ozai continues and Ty Lee feels as if she is an insect being vivisected by some kind of cruel overlord. So, well, that is apparently where Azula gets it.

"Yes," Ty Lee replies, nodding awkwardly and feeling uncomfortable.

"And how did you and Azula meet?" Ozai inquires.

"In class."

"In _which _class?" Ozai presses and Ty Lee sucks in her cheeks for a moment.

"The one in which she set her bangs on fire and I put them out," Azula replies honestly. "Chemistry."

Ty Lee's face flushes and Azula smirks wickedly. "It's true. I was talking to my friend and I leaned over the burner and, well, you know how important hairspray is to keep a braid in place for three days... and it just kind of... _poof_."

"I see," the Fire Lord replies and Ty Lee shoves food in her mouth as quickly as she can.

* * *

"That probably could've gone better," Ty Lee whispers after the uncomfortable dinner ends. Azula shuts the door behind them and shrugs.

"He's not very tolerant of anyone who is less than exceptional." And then Azula pauses. "Not that you're less than exceptional. Don't worry too much about my father."

"That... is kind of difficult when he has the power to have anyone executed that he wants for whatever reason."

"My father isn't going to have you executed for getting your hair set on fire in Chem Lab. However... the fact that it wasn't your _first _time setting your bangs on fire in Chem Lab might change his mind..." Azula's lips twitch as Ty Lee sighs.

The heat radiating from Azula draws Ty Lee to her like a spider-moth to flame.

Ty Lee is breathless as Azula pushes her onto her bed, taking the time to turn on the television to some trashy reality show to cover up any noise they are about to make. And, if Azula has her way, they will make _a lot of it._

"You are really hot," Azula whispers in Ty Lee's ear as she straddles her over the crisp red, black and white school uniform.

"You look pretty excited," Ty Lee breathes back, enjoying the heat surging where their hips meet.

"I'm excited because I'm going to slide up that little plaid skirt and..." Azula is cut off by lips pressing fiercely against hers. Her hand does trail along the inside of Ty Lee's thigh, teasing her oh so gently, but with so much malice behind every move.

They fall into each other, fondling, gasping and moaning, and it lasts well into the night.

* * *

Ty Lee is woken in the morning and realizes she is alone. The sunlight trickles through the window and she can hear the traffic from far, far down below the penthouse. Slowly, yawning, she sits up and realizes it is a Wednesday, and she is probably expected to go to school.

They fell asleep together and it was somewhat magical. Azula always maintains a certain level of being _detached_ and Ty Lee has grown used to it. But being wrapped in her arms in the afterglow of sex as Real Housewives of Caldera played and Azula fell asleep with her chin on Ty Lee's shoulder was one of the best feelings the cheerleader has ever experienced.

And now she will have to come back to the crashing reality that this is not how it is in the romance novels. That she and Azula's relationship will never be that way.

It is unfortunate, but real. Ty Lee stands up and starts to investigate Azula's room, figuring this is probably some form of treason, but also well aware that even Azula is somewhat convinced by the dumb cheerleader persona Ty Lee wears as a mask at all times.

Her dresser is lined with expensive trinkets showered on her by an apologetic yet cruel father, hidden beneath a stack of red clothes are bottles of pills and Ty Lee counts five mirrors in one room, each of them perfectly shiny and devoid of fingerprints. Nail glue and false eyelashes rest with expensive jewelry, and Ty Lee picks up an archaic necklace that must be a hundred years old at least.

Princess Azula's shelves are lined with awards in everything imaginable, mostly firebending and academics. Still, absolutely not a trace of Zuko or her mother. A little... _snowglobe_... a snowglobe of Cimmerian City, the beautiful, bright buildings lighting up when Ty Lee hesitantly shakes it and then quickly sets it back in its place.

Books, shelves upon shelves of them. And the most interesting thing in her entire bedroom is tucked behind folders of crinkled sheet music. A half charred stuffed dragon, half of its body blackened by fire.

"Oh, you're up," says a voice that makes Ty Lee choke on her spit before collecting herself.

"I was just looking for my clothes," Ty Lee says quickly, and it is a half truth.

Azula glistens with cold sweat, her shiny raven hair damp from the rain outside. Training, she must have been.

"Hm, well, don't get too nosy," Azula says and Ty Lee thinks her golden eyes linger on the stuffed dragon for a moment. "There are many reasons why I'm not exactly allowed to have friends over."

The twitch of her lips makes Ty Lee furrow her brow as Azula opens a drawer and tosses Ty Lee uniform clothes and her backpack, before she ducks out of the room and walks to her shower.

_Good Agni, Ty Lee, what have you managed to get yourself into? _

* * *

Sozin High. Named for the most famous Fire Lord in history, despite his less than savory resume of committing mass genocide. The war was ended by Fire Lord Azulon before Azula was born, and she is part of the first generation to have grown up in a time of peace and relative balance.

It is like any high school, Azula supposes, if they all served to the elite of the Four Elements instead of just the dominant element. It is homogenous, mostly, to the Fire Nation, of course. The Earth Kingdom has plenty of magnificent schools, and the Water Tribe is so third world Azula is amazed they have managed to scrape by into this century of progress and smartphones.

There are a few Water Tribe students at the school, all children of ambassadors to the Fire Nation, or wealthy businessmen or businesswomen who came to the Fire Nation because of its booming economy and fabulous system that Azula is quite proud to one day rule over.

A few Earth Kingdom students, but they are very sparse. And, of course, there is no longer any such thing as an airbender. War, war raged, and the Fire Lords that came after Sozin all did their part to take what they believed to be theirs. The other nations coexist quite well, but there is certainly disparity in the elements, and even between the classes in the Fire Nation itself.

The world is united under its de facto and enigmatic leader; Fire Lord Ozai. And although he consorts with the leaders of the other nations, while he gives them goodwill. His reparations for war came with a grave price, and the politicians are so corrupt that they just let it happen. It is the Fire Nation's empire, even if Ozai allowed them to revel in their own cultures so they could not see who is truly in charge, and even though all nations have autonomy.

Now, energy placed into creating weapons has been placed into advancing technology, transportation... the Fire Nation is in a Golden Era of smartphones, fast cars and copious plastic. Azula cannot help but salivate over the thought of it all eventually being hers.

The wall is plastered with propaganda posters about the United Empire. Colors of blue, red and green all blended to try to make it seem so diverse. To pretend that there are not rebels who know better than to fall for the slippery yet intoxicating lies of the United Empire.

Complex politics of the modern world aside, Azula would say it is like most high schools. With Ty Lee at her side, she passes everyone she has grown to utterly despise over the years, making her way to her locker as she strides with overconfidence.

They fear her, they love her, they want to be her. But none of them want to be her friend.

Azula's eyes linger for a bit too long on the hottest girl in their grade (_other than her, of course_) and she feels a light tugging on the sleeve of her crimson cardigan.

"I'm just looking," Azula murmurs into the neck of her girlfriend, peeling her eyes from Yue. "She's Water Tribe anyway. It isn't like I would stoop so low as to hit that."

"And definitely dyes her hair," Ty Lee replies sharply and Azula cannot help but enjoy the jealousy. "No one can have _that _as a natural color..."

"Why are you lying in front of my locker?" Azula demands as she studies Mai.

"Because I'm tired," she replies with a small groan as Azula kicks her with the pointy toe of her coal black heels and Ty Lee studies the pallid form of Mai quite closely.

She has coconut sized headphones draped over her neck, the patterns on her socks don't match and she seems to have put little thought into her appearance save for eyeliner that Ty Lee finds far too thick. It is these two girls who Ty Lee has officially befriended, and she, admittedly, is relatively baffled by it.

"Move. I need to get my things," Azula says, kicking her gently again. Mai grumbles something to herself and rolls over, pushing herself to her feet.

"So, you two arrived together instead of pretending not to know each other until Azula's bodyguards stopped trailing her for the day," Mai remarks as she opens her own locker.

"What an astute observation," Azula purrs sarcastically, wondering why she surrounds herself with idiots.

"I slept over," Ty Lee says sweetly and then her jaw drops as Mai withdraws her United Empire Politics binder. "And I didn't do my homework, _Azula_!"

The princess looks at her with absolutely no pity, her eyes flickering up and down her body for a moment.

"Well, I _do _have a copy that _perhaps _you could borrow..." Azula says, slowly withdrawing the paper with her slender fingers.

"Please, please, please, I'll be your slave forever."

"I think you already are," Azula replies with a mocking smirk.

"For even _longer _than forever." Ty Lee bats her eyelashes and Mai makes retching sounds.

"I need something a bit more immediate."

"Like what?" Ty Lee asks brightly and Azula leans her back against the inside of the locker, the door covering her body from the rest of the hall.

"A kiss," Azula replies and Ty Lee slips forward, both of them hidden behind the bright red metal and Mai watching with utter disdain as their lips meet.

"That's gross and should not be allowed in public," Mai mutters under her breath.

* * *

"... which is why," Katara continues in her bold, unwavering voice as the entire class stares with vacant expressions, "the inequity among the ruling classes of each nation and the working class, is so painful, and is entirely represented in the abandonment of the Southern Water Tribe by the Northern Water Tribe."

Azula is not entirely sure how long that speech was, but it was seven levels of painful. If she had to choose a worst enemy, it would be Katara. Ty Lee smiles at her and Azula glares at her girlfriend, quickly silencing Ty Lee about to clap for her presentation.

There is halfhearted applause as Azula kicks her feet up on the back of Mai's chair, sharp heels digging into her best friend's back and Mai suddenly sits up. Azula smirks to herself; oh, she was most definitely asleep.

As class finally lets out, "Why do you hate Katara anyway?" Ty Lee asks Azula and Mai slowly shakes her head.

"Because she's horrible," Azula replies sweetly, keeping her eyes focused on the hallway.

"I mean, she seems really nice. She does all that community service and─"

"_Ty Lee_, being my friend does not just include being my friend. It also includes sharing my enemies, no questions asked. If you are confused, refer to the section in the Friendship Manual: Because I Said So, That's Why," Azula says and Mai has to suppress a snicker. Ty Lee looks confused as she continues walking.

"Uh, okay..." Ty Lee says softly, rubbing her neck.

"Her other enemies include literally everyone who does not lick her shoes," Mai adds and Azula sighs.

"That's not true. I have lots of casual acquaintances," Azula replies and Mai shakes her head again behind Azula's back.

Ty Lee smiles weakly.

* * *

Lunch. Lunch is Mai's least favorite part of the day by a wide margin. She sits with Azula, and now Ty Lee, and Ty Lee's friends from the cheerleading squad that Mai does not bother learning the names of. While Ty Lee may have bent in every single way once she decided she wanted into Azula's little plaid skirt, she did not give up her membership to the cheerleaders.

And so they take the liberty of joining what once was a very exclusive table of two.

Mai's eyes glaze over the rest of the cafeteria, knowing there is nowhere else she actually wants to sit. One table that is exclusively Haru and Jin making out. Katara and her three friends are Azula's mortal enemies, even though Mai does not think they're half bad, particularly the earthbender. Freshmen, some other kids, Jet and Hahn thinking they're complete bad boys even though Mai once completely kicked their asses after Jet undid her bra from behind during some stupid assembly.

And in front of her, four cheerleaders who look completely identical to Suki, the one Azula loathes but Ty Lee likes, and Mai has never actually seen Azula speak to someone she dislikes, which makes Mai think perhaps she actually _is _serious about Ty Lee. Yue, oh, Yue, who is dumb enough to be dating Hahn yet smart enough to somehow get better grades than Mai. On Ji, the freshman who is trying desperately to keep her head above the water.

Jun, the loner, the one Mai sometimes thinks about for too long. And sometimes thinks about what she might look like in the shower.

Lunch. Lunch never seems to end.

Mai hates it.

Well, Mai kind of hates everything.

* * *

After school is, at last, over, Azula walks through the park, hyperaware of the secret service agents watching her every step. Ty Lee holds her hand and they try to pretend that it is out of friendship and not the desire to constantly ravage each other and maybe one day get married.

"Oo, turtleducks!" Ty Lee squeals in utter excitement and Azula slowly shakes her head as her girlfriend tugs her to the murky, greenish water.

"I hate turtleducks," Azula replies coldly and Ty Lee cocks an eyebrow.

"Hm," Ty Lee replies and Azula just shrugs. She does not need to explain herself or why she despises an animal, person, place or thing and Ty Lee knows she should expect Azula to think that way. "I guess that makes them my enemies too."

"I suppose," Azula says as she watches Ty Lee rummage through her frilly backpack for the remnants of her lunch to feed the turtleducks. It makes Azula's gut twist as she thinks of mother and Zuko.

"Can I ask something a bit inappropriate?" Ty Lee asks and Azula just shrugs. "Your brother went to school with us last year and I didn't... see anything of his or anything..."

Azula makes a small sound in the back of her throat and Ty Lee worries that she overstepped a boundary. "Last Summer Solstice he got into a huge fight with my father, which is nothing new, but this one landed him in the hospital, and my father sent him to go live with my Uncle."

Ty Lee feels awkwardly silent after that. "So, do you want to go to homecoming with me?" Ty Lee asks, looking up at Azula as the turtleducks make excited sounds.

"Maybe," Azula says and then she clears her throat. "Yes, actually. But shut up for now, I don't want to talk about how you probably want coordinate our dresses or something else shallow and beneath me. We'll have plenty of time to discuss it tomorrow... I have quite big plans..."

"For what?" Ty Lee asks, startled.

"Oh, you'll see." Azula's golden eyes sparkle like the evil genius she is.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

* * *

Azula cannot help but stare at Ty Lee, leaning against her locker dressed for cheer practice, a ring pop hooked to her finger and in her mouth. Whoever invented the ring pop inadvertently created the most sexual candy Azula can possibly think of. And Ty Lee's lips, stained the blue of Azula's flames, around it is arousing on a number of horrifying levels that the princess is not equipped to deal with.

The princess has an energy drink touched to her own lips, but she has forgotten about its presence altogether.

"Hi, princess!" Ty Lee exclaims as she notices her, and Azula realizes she has probably been staring for far too long to be socially appropriate. She nearly drops and then promptly catches her drink before striding across the hallway and leaning beside her girlfriend, their hips nearly touching.

"And you must be going to do your... cheerleading," Azula says, wishing she had something cleverer to say. Speaking lessons, wit, charm, all of it rendered absolutely obsolete at the sight of an air headed girl with a ring pop in her mouth. Azula has never been more disappointed in herself.

"Well, yeah," Ty Lee says lightly and Azula wishes she had more experience in small talk. Ty Lee, however, mends the silence by kissing Azula on the lips, and leaving the flavor of blue raspberry in her mouth.

Azula kisses her back, more fiercely, and their tongues intertwine and war, still with the same sweet, candy taste. Ty Lee moves and rolls up Azula's uniform skirt, pressing their hips against each other in the empty locker room. Azula has her pinned against the hard metal now, which makes a moan escape her lips and the candy brush against Azula's neck, leaving a sticky streak of light blue.

Slowly, Azula's hands slip up beneath Ty Lee's skirt, rolling it higher and higher up over her hips, and Ty Lee presses herself against her girlfriend far more fiercely. There is a dripping, soaking heat and it prods them to explore each other further, but Ty Lee breaks away, pressing the candy into Azula's hand.

"What?" Azula demands, looking at her and feeling so uncomfortably aware of her lingering arousal and her flushed skin that previously had a chilly, royal pallor.

"I just... uh..." and Ty Lee squirms slightly with a deep inhale and exhale. "If we're caught..."

"We won't be," Azula says, stepping towards Ty Lee and pressing her wrist again to the locker. Ty Lee tries to enjoy it, but she still feels the racing in her heart that is not attributed to the adolescent longing for sex.

Azula lips meet Ty Lee's again, as she reaches down to her thigh and pulls her leg up to rest around her hip. Pressure again, and, then, again, they stop. But this time, it is not of Ty Lee's accord; it is of Azula's.

"You're right, aren't you?" the princess sighs, examining her surroundings. And then Ty Lee pouts for a brief moment. "If we're caught I'm so screwed. I'm many levels of screwed."

Her breath on Ty Lee's neck makes her shoulders squirm slightly and they both know what they want so desperately, but what could get them in far more trouble than it likely is worth. Are adolescent hormones really worth the chances of what could come next?

Ty Lee rubs her neck and gently parts herself from Azula. They stare at each other for a moment, half-aware that someone could just burst in.

"Why... don't we take a shower?" Ty Lee offers, pointing at the extremely secluded section of the nearly empty locker room.

"Don't you have practice?" Azula asks before realizing the invitation concealed in Ty Lee's rather innocent words.

"I was thinking about skipping today anyway," Ty Lee says quietly as she takes Azula's hand in hers and guides her to the showers. They are (mostly) alone and it is (completely) thrilling, as Ty Lee strips down quickly out of her uniform and slowly starts the water.

Azula is undressed swiftly afterwards, although hyperaware of the delicate nature of this situation. And soon she is under the cool water, embraced in the arms of her girlfriend, enjoying the pleasures of each others' bodies in the cold privacy of a locker room.

And when they emerge, it will be a secret again, and the moans and desperate kisses, biting, sucking, pressing against each other, will vanish.

To the prying eyes of the outside world, Azula and Ty Lee will be just friends (if that) and that is likely how it will always be.

* * *

"You never do anything fun," Ty Lee complains with a tiny pout on her lips as she and Azula finish drying themselves off and reapplying their-makeup. They attempt to look presentable, and Azula hopes her father or any other figure of authority will notice anything off about her gait. Because she thinks she is becoming quite different now with the introduction of the incredibly inspired sex.

"I don't have time for _fun _when I eventually have to lead a Nation," Azula replies as she twists the cap back onto her pricey mascara.

"You know what I think you should do?" Ty Lee says, batting her eyelashes as if that will make her out of line comment more palatable to Azula. "I think you should skip school tomorrow."

Azula just stares at her, as if she has just spoken in ancient Water Tribe. "That's not an option. That's never an option. There's no way no one will notice that I'm missing, and there will probably be some kind of fiasco..."

"Pretend you're sick," Ty Lee says with a shrug, facing the mirror but with her eyes fixated on Azula. Somehow, the reflection makes it feel as if they are boring into the princess's soul.

"That won't work," Azula replies with a knowing and superior smirk. But Ty Lee simply blinks, unfazed.

"You just had sex with me inside of a school locker room with your bodyguards right outside. That's a _bit_ riskier than faking a cough," Ty Lee explains with an eyebrow raised and Azula narrows her eyes. She does have to admit that Ty Lee has a point, despite the fact that this is likely a horrible idea.

"Hm."

"Call me if you choose to be wild," Ty Lee says before pushing off of her toe gracefully and kissing Azula hard on the lips.

And she is gone, leaving only the aroma of fruity adolescent perfume in her wake.

Ty Lee leaves Azula quite confused, and wondering if there could be any benefits at all to rebellion.

* * *

Ty Lee loves mornings. She genuinely does. But she hates mornings when she is utterly incapable of finding necessary parts of her uniform because of the six other girls who enjoy stealing her clothes and making her late. Well, alright, maybe she tends to make herself late. But _still_.

And today, she is lacking socks. Or tights. Or anything, actually, that is preventing her from getting yet another detention, which she simply cannot afford at this point. However, she has made it through the morning without being caught, and she is on her way to run eyeliner up the backs of her legs in a futile attempt to hide her bare skin, when she is stopping the hallway.

_Magnificent_.

"That's your fourth infraction," remarks Mr. Moto in a dry, bored tone.

"I just got my socks _wet_. It's raining," whines Ty Lee loudly as she stares at her bare feet, tucked into leather shoes. "You can't actually be serious!"

Mr. Moto clearly sees that it is a lie, and just looks her up and down with his pursed lips. _Of course _she gets caught by her Chemistry teacher, whose class she has been failing and igniting her hair during since the _first day _of the year.

"Detention. Lunch," Mr. Moto says and Ty Lee cannot suppress her pout of displeasure.

Ty Lee storms away and finds Mai, whom is curled in an alcove of the beautiful building, her ears tucked beneath large headphones, as usual.

"Where's Azula?" demands Ty Lee, kicking Mai gently with the tip of her toes.

Mai stares at her blankly before removing her headphones from her ears and shrugging her soft shoulders.

"I don't know. I haven't seen her bodyguards. And I'm not her babysitter. Or her _girlfriend_," Mai says, punctuating her words with a sigh before seizing her backpack and setting off beside Ty Lee to their next class.

Meanwhile, Azula is lying in her bed, curled up. Faked flu symptoms were much easier than she thought they would be, and her nanny immediately obeyed her request to stay home. Father, of course, has her utterly surrounded by protection that a prodigious firebender has no need for.

That would make anything _fun_, like sneaking out, nearly impossible. But she does feel like a _bit _of a rebel as she pulls her phone out from beneath her pillow and scrolls with her thumb for Ty Lee's contact shortcut.

Ty Lee answers while she is in the bathroom fixing her hair and sulking about the detention she received.

"Azula?" Ty Lee asks, glad she isn't dead or something.

"Meet me at my house," Azula says and Ty Lee rubs her lips together. She does not think she could get through that security if she had invisibility powers. "I'll let you in, relax. I have this covered."

Ty Lee finds it difficult to believe, but she assents, deciding that it's better than an entire day of _this _bullshit. She is halfway out of the school via the balcony on the third floor when she hears someone clear their throat behind her. Screaming, she barely catches the windowsill and keeps herself from plummeting to her death.

"Going somewhere?" Mai asks dryly, looking Ty Lee up and down with only her chilling amber eyes.

"Uhh... to meet Azula maybe?" Ty Lee offers, shooting a bright grin to assure Mai that nothing sinister is happening. However, her friend does not seem to care, shrugging in response.

"Take me with you," Mai demands and Ty Lee squints at her.

"Your parents would _completely _find out. It's not like mine. They won't even notice I'm gone," Ty Lee says but Mai's expression remains stony, and her lips firmly sealed. "Uh, alright then. Come on; I've snuck out this way before."

And, so, Mai and Ty Lee slide down the wall of the school and start implementing their sets of combat skills to get to the parking lot and take Mai's car.

* * *

"Mai's car?" Azula asks as she examines the two girls in the elevator with her. "Hmm."

"No," Mai replies coldly and bluntly, but Azula pays her no mind.

Azula had told her guards and _nanny _that her friends were bringing over homework during their lunch break, and bringing her all of her firebending supplies so they would not get left at the school over the weekend. That was very plausible, and seeing as Azula has never done anything defiant or rebellious before, they had no reason to assume Azula would be up to no good.

"You have a car with you," Azula purrs, her lips twitching. "It poses many interesting opportunities."

"No," Mai replies as they pass the guards and walk into Azula's bedroom. Ty Lee is antsy, her heart pumping out of control. The look of the armed men surrounding Azula is somehow much more intimidating when Ty Lee is aware that she is defying the Fire Lord and sleeping with _his daughter_. "My answer is no. My parents will murder me if they catch me, and I have to go back to school after this."

Azula pouts and Mai is stoic. Ty Lee wonders how she can so easily resist Azula like that. It is a level of friendship Ty Lee does not know if she will ever achieve.

"How are you going to get out of this place? It might as well be the Boiling Rock," Mai continues as she lies down on Azula's messy bed. "The _minute _they notice that you're gone, we will probably be hunted down by helicopters or something..."

"I never do anything fun," Azula says and Ty Lee at first thinks she is mocking her girlfriend, but then she realizes that Azula may have actually taken that to heart. Ty Lee tries to hide her shame and regret, and thankfully, neither Mai nor Azula are even looking at her.

"There are other fun things you could do. There are numerous fun things you could do that don't involve skipping school and sneaking out of the Pohai Stronghold," Mai replies with yet another shrug.

"It's an apartment. It's not _that _impossible," Azula says sharply. And then she pauses and glances at Ty Lee. "Well, I suppose I have no choice but to order you to take me on a wonderful day off."

"No."

"Did you mishear me?" Azula asks and her tone instantly shifts to one Mai hates. "I said, take me in your car to wherever I want to go today."

"I wish I had stayed at school and taken that calculus test," Mai mutters under her breath before pushing herself to her feet. "Alright, apparently I'm your slave forever and condemned to spend eternity being an accomplice to things."

"You understand," Azula purrs, and she smirks at them both.

* * *

"So, locking the door is enough to prevent the guards from noticing you left?" Mai asks as Ty Lee slurps a milkshake contentedly. They are in the park, walking beneath the shade of the trees and trying to keep out of sight.

Mai and Ty Lee changed out of their uniforms in the car after their grand escape through the front door, before distracting guards and letting Azula sneak out of her window. It was _almost _exciting for Mai. And it was _thrilling _to Ty Lee.

"They're making sure no one gets _in_, not _out_. You two left through the front door, and I'm sure they think nothing is wrong," Azula says as she halfheartedly examines her bag of uneaten fire flakes. "This park is boring. Take me somewhere better."

The rest of the day is a blissful blur. Azula and Ty Lee almost feel as if they are on a real date, if it weren't for Mai complaining, and that isn't too difficult to mind. They go to a museum, to a shady arcade on the fringes of town that leaves Ty Lee clinging to Azula's arm as they pass the endless lines of smoke shops and psychics' offices. Azula feels a small blush on her cheeks at that point.

But time runs short, and soon the audiences for the day will be done at the palace, and Mai's parents will notice she is not yet home from school.

"Shortcut," Ty Lee suggests as Azula is gnawing her lip off from how much time they wasted today. The regret is overwhelming in her body, but she hides it well. "If we cut through that abandoned part of the Industrial District, we'll get towards the Caldera way faster."

Azula and Mai exchange a glance.

"This is exactly how ninety percent of teen horror movies start," Mai sighs, but no one is listening to her.

Perfect Daughter Azula is in too much of a tizzy of her father possibly finding out about her rebellion to actually consider the fact that putting herself into danger could cost a Nation a great price. And that Mai does not want to come face to face with an axe wielding or earthbending lunatic.

"Alright, pull over at the next turn and go to Lin's Diner. This place is seedy as fuck," Mai says flatly, keeping the hesitance out of her voice.

"No, if we go to Lin's Diner we're going to get caught," Azula says sharply as she pulls into the sketchiest parking lot Mai has ever seen in her life.

"I don't want to be a constant downer─"

"HA!" is Ty Lee's loud laugh and scoff that makes Azula's lips twitch with a smirk.

"_But_, this is probably not the best neighborhood for the Princess of the Fire Nation to be in," Mai remarks as she cautiously locks the door. There is a gas station with paper _out of order _signs tacked on all of the pumps, a ramshackle line of what once were shops that now look like abandoned ruins.

And all of it is within some crumbling section of Caldera Metropolis City. The Industrial District is nearby, Mai supposes.

It is, in the scariest place Azula, Mai and Ty Lee have ever seen, that moments later, the car stops working.

_Marvelous_.

An hour later, the sun is starting to set and the three girls have exhausted all of their options. Ty Lee is hiding, curled in a ball in the car, sincerely hoping no one notices them here. Given, all three girls could easily kill a man, but that does not abet the anxiety.

Mai has a cigarette between her lips and Ty Lee keeps fighting the urge to knock it out of her face. The added suffocation is certainly not helping the fact that the cheerleader is on the verge of a panic attack.

"I'm calling my father," Azula declares at last, after entirely giving up on every other number in her arsenal.

"We're going to die, aren't we?" Ty Lee shrieks, upon hearing _that_.

"Possibly," Azula replies, shrugging carelessly and Mai makes a sound that is either dull laughing or forceful coughing.

Soldiers. Soldiers come to get three girls who wound up stranded in the Industrial District.

And none of them have ever been more humiliated.

* * *

"I never thought you could disappoint me like your brother," Ozai says as he paces in front of the raging and crackling fireplace.

Azula sits on the sofa with her hands tucked between her knees, trying to look as demure and innocent as possible. She has no idea if it will work, but she hopes she can escape with relatively few repercussions for her reckless actions.

"I meant no disrespect to you, father," Azula purrs, widening her eyes and pointing them slightly towards the dim orange light in the room. It makes them sparkle, and hopefully makes her look like his perfect little girl. "I just wanted to... be like a normal teenager, just for a moment. I am honored to do my duty to the Fire Nation, but sometimes I..."

Ozai cracks his knuckles and Azula struggles to read the gesture. He supposes that when he was young, he would push limits, partially because he was the younger child and could afford to while Iroh prepared for the throne. And he thinks that skipping school is _less _of a reckless decision than much of what he did as an adolescent.

He had harsh punishments in mind, but when he looks in her eyes, he sees the only thing he has left in this world. And he sees a girl who was just trying to fit in with her friends.

"Alright. You will do nothing outside of schoolwork and your extra-curricular activities. And you are to report to your guards ─ all of which have been replaced with more competent officials ─ every day directly after school. I will be checking up on you regularly."

"I accept my punishment, father," Azula says sweetly and he conceals his relief.

He has not lost her yet.

Meanwhile, Ty Lee is facing no repercussions for her actions at all. Her parents just sighed and moved along with their business, and now she is desperately trying to contact with Azula, who is completely ignoring her.

That is worrying. Very, _very _worrying.

If Ty Lee got her into trouble with the _Fire Lord _she would never be able to forgive herself.

She tosses and turns for the remainder of the night, and cannot sleep for the life of her.

* * *

"You're alive!" Ty Lee shrieks as she runs to Azula, and hugs her tightly, stopping just short of kissing her when she notices the bodyguards.

"Yes, I think I'm grounded, though," Azula says, cocking an eyebrow. "But I have a plan."

"You always do," Ty Lee says with a small grin.

"My father says I am not permitted to do anything except for productive extracurricular activities, studying and political events," Azula says beneath the bleachers in the shiny gymnasium. Ty Lee is across from her, her legs contorted into an odd position as she sits. "And seeing as you aren't a firebender and aren't exactly the academic type... I'm going to try out for Meng's spot on the cheer team."

Ty Lee's eyes light up with an amount of excitement that Azula did not think existed in that quantity. She leans forward and instantly kisses Azula on the lips.

"Oh, this is going to be so fun. I can't wait!" Ty Lee declares shrilly before realizing her voice is echoing across the wide room and she quickly clamps her hand over her own mouth with wide eyes.

"Yes... fun," Azula murmurs, clearing her throat uncomfortably. But Ty Lee does not notice Azula's mild reluctance, and immediately takes her by the hands and guides her towards the field to practice.

"Your firebending is going to make this _super _easy," Ty Lee says brightly, her eyes alit with genuine excitement.

Azula plays along, and supposes that it is better than nothing.

It most certainly will give an opportunity for locker room sex that Azula would not have if she remained grounded and did not bother picking up an extra extracurricular that lets her be with her girlfriend.

Still, Azula is mildly haunted by Ty Lee's earlier request for Ozai to _know _about them.

That is not an option.

But doing handsprings in the damp grass, together, alone, together, is quite nice, although the princess has no desire to admit that openly.

The afternoon is surprisingly blissful.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

* * *

There are myriad things that Azula hates in her life, although she is completely uncomfortable with expressing them.

To everyone around her, and everyone she knows, she has the most perfect life imaginable. Every day she wakes up and trains for an hour, does her hair, her make-up, makes herself look perfect. Her grades are always flawless, she wins awards, she makes sure that people either hate her, love her or want to be her.

However, while those may be true, there are parts of Azula's life that she has no desire to share with anyone. Like this part, while she sits alone in a doctor's waiting room that smells of copious air conditioning, as she is halfheartedly writing an essay for her stupid politics class that she took solely because how could she _not _pass politics; she has been tutored in these things since before she can remember.

But the class is boring, focused on topics that make Azula want to stab her eyes out, and is filled with outspoken, immensely frustrating people like Azula's absolute worst rival. At least all of her teachers like her. Mr. Saiko has always liked her, as do most teachers, but his affection tends to be because he coaches the probending team, and therefore loved her from the start.

She shoves her book and essay into her bag as she is invited inside, trying not to roll her eyes, and trying to look as perfect as she does to everyone else. Azula loves her father; he is all she truly has. _But _it does enrage her that he forces her into therapy, drugs her up because he's lazy, and then distances himself from his actions, because, presumably, it's too much work to help a crazy.

After her dreadful appointment, Azula stares at the raindrops on the window as she is driven to meet her father for dinner. She hopes to use the occasion to convince him to allow her to go to the cheerleading tryouts. The water transfixes her, even if fire is her element.

Lightning cracks and she savors the brief rush in her blood.

Azula sits at the restaurant alone, poking her straw back and forth with a single, manicured finger. This is utterly humiliating, but by this point she is used to either being stood up or left alone for endless amounts of time as her father is too occupied to remember he has a child.

To Azula's pleasant surprise, he is only an hour late, and she has to remind herself that this dinner is going to end with her being allowed to try out for a cheerleading team, which is likely not going to be easy. Perhaps Azula is talented at manipulating people, and is fully capable of manipulating her father, but this may be pushing it.

"It's nice to see you," Azula says. _It's nice you decided to show up_, Azula thinks.

"You went to your appointment?" Ozai inquires severely, knowing she has attempted to escape or dodge them before.

"Of course," Azula replies. _It isn't as if you are constantly watching me, _Azula adds in her head.

"And you did well during it?" Ozai asks and Azula just nods. "I know you dislike it when dinners together sound like business meetings, but we have a few topics to discuss. First off, the terms of your punishment."

"I don't really care, father." And then she pushes her straw again. "I _do_, however, it isn't as if I did much outside of academics and extracurricular activities in the first place. If I may make a case for myself, I've really done nothing wrong in my life, father."

"I know that's true." He seems to want to say more, but he does not.

"And, as your very perfect daughter, who has endured so much in her young life, I was hoping I could attempt an activity not already approved by you or whoever decides these dictations in my life. It's only that it's... something I've always wanted to try. I acted out because I wanted to do something different. This would be a much more productive use of those undesirable feelings," Azula says smoothly and Ozai studies her for a moment.

"Yes?"

"I want to try out for the cheerleading squad." She tries her best not to cringe at his expression after that.

"I want many things as well. The world is built on desires and we don't always get what we want," is his cool response, although she thinks he might be panicked.

"It's not as degrading as you think it is."

"It is an activity directed at nonbenders and young sluts," he admits openly and Azula clenches her fist beneath the table.

_Of course, _of course.

"I am neither of those things," Azula corrects fiercely, unable to stay calm now.

And he replies easily, "Which is why you shouldn't do it."

"I would enjoy it," Azula says through clenched teeth.

"You will have time to enjoy things and make decisions for your own life when you are Fire Lord." It is the voice used for final decisions, but Azula is not ready to accept that answer.

Azula bites her lower lip and realizes she is going to have to try much harder.

"Don't you think your daughter being seen regularly with people other than her elite circle would make a good case for your support of the people. I'm not blind to the various groups of malcontent citizens that are brushed under the rug. Water Tribe people who have no reparations from the war ─ of which there are many on the team ─ or the quite disturbing Equalists... What would better dispel your reputation as just another tyrant than that."

Ozai stares at her, contemplating that. He drums his fingers on the table for a moment, intending to make her squirm for a satisfactory amount of time before he gives her what she wants.

"If you manage to make the team, and if I approve of your interactions and image afterwards."

"Thank you." Azula hides her smug lips behind the delicate wooden menu.

* * *

Azula does well, learns quickly, and knows in the first place that she will not be denied anything she wants. Even if Suki happens to be someone Azula may or may not have utterly tormented, tortured and antagonized for the entirety of middle school and the past three years of high school.

It is not begrudgingly that Suki gives her the place. Azula _has _earned it, and she knows that she would be giving it to her anyway, both from the pressure from the administrators of the school and the fact that Suki has to see and speak to Azula almost every day thanks to Ty Lee jumping ship on hating Azula and deciding to sleep with her instead.

"It's not like you had any doubts," Suki murmurs to herself as Azula very clearly fakes being gracious and humble.

"Well, it's not as if bending is very different from... whatever _this _is," Azula says, glancing around with an impossible to disguise look of distaste.

"Right, because every activity or movie or whatever meant for nonbenders is so beneath you people." Suki crosses her arms as Azula just shrugs.

"No. I'm dating one, and my best friend is one. Don't accuse me of being prejudiced," Azula replies coldly as she extends a hand and waits for Suki's paperwork.

"I forgot; you look down on everyone equally." Suki grimaces before at last handing it to Azula, nearly having to pry it out of her own fingers.

"Exactly." Azula disappears out of the door of the gymnasium office before Suki can say another word.

Once Azula, walks out into the empty, half-lit gym, someone slender comes bounding at her.

"Yay!" Ty Lee hugs Azula tightly, her lips colliding with the princess's cheekbone, and sliding slightly to her ear by mistake. "I knew you could do it! And you can go to homecoming too!"

Azula licks her lips and gently pushes Ty Lee away, hating the fact that she is hoping that they were not seen exchanging that kiss by anyone who would enjoy telling someone with authority.

"Let's go outside," Azula orders, both of them knowing their usual hiding place.

A few minutes and a trek through wet fields later, they sit close together, underneath thick, grey metal bleachers, Azula perched on Ty Lee's nice cardigan so she does not get her clothes wet or grass-stained.

And, so, when Azula sees Ty Lee's expression fall slightly, she imagines it is because of how dismal this really looks. Hiding this relationship because Azula is stuck in such a frustrating situation.

"I wanted... to tell you something," Ty Lee says softly, her lips now in a genuine frown. Azula does not think she has _ever _seen Ty Lee make that face, and it causes her heart to skip and flutter.

"Mhm?" Azula responds hesitantly, wondering what could be _so sad_.

"I might have gotten a... another date to homecoming." Ty Lee rubs her lips and her eyes widen, sparkling with what might be hope or possibly tears.

Azula only blinks, rendered speechless by that statement. She thinks she does not even fully comprehend what Ty Lee has just declared.

"Why? Who?" Azula does not truthfully know what she is supposed to ask.

"It's okay, though, because he's not supposed to be with his girlfriend either, because her parents have forbidden them to be together or something, and so we agreed to─"

"No, no, no. Did you tell this person about us?"

"This person is Haru, who you've seen making out with Jin about three times a day. _And _I think it would be hard for people _not_ to notice us, Azula," Ty Lee snaps before regretting it. She did not think it would upset the princess this much when she agreed to go with Haru. He spends so much time making out with Jin that she didn't think it would even raise an eyebrow.

"I think that..."

"You think that I... look, I just, I want to... I want to... I've never _not _had a date to a dance before and he's going to get with her as soon as we arrive and you will be with me and it will be fine. We can dance together and you can do that instead of just sitting in the corner on your phone with Mai."

"I figured that this was a fairly exclusive relationship," Azula says slowly, touching her lips gently with the pads of her fingers. "And there's nothing wrong with how I've spent the last dances. These social events at high schools are petty and ridiculous anyway compared to _real _social events with _meaning _and _important _people. I refuse to apologize for the way I live my life."

Ty Lee furrows her brow before weakly replying, "Well, I won't either."

Azula wavers, lingering for a moment with words on the tip of her tongue that she does not want to say because they will make it look like she _cares_, and she at last stands and walks away, storming across the field and going to call someone to pick her up.

And Ty Lee is still completely confused.

* * *

Ty Lee is unsure what to think as she goes through the rest of her afternoon. Azula's reaction was not at all what Ty Lee expected; she thought the princess would think it would be a super smart way to avoid the suspicions of her father, which Azula seems to worry about _constantly_. Among other things that Azula worries about constantly, to the point where she will probably die very young of stress.

She wakes up in the morning feeling as good as she can, laments the fact that she cannot get into any of the four bathrooms in her house, and so she finds the mint breath-spray she got as a gag gift for one of her birthdays and unscrews the cap to use it as mouthwash, because _she cannot be late again_.

Once she arrives at school, looking like the worst kind of mess with her braid un-brushed and pinned beneath a bow that matches her uniform, she walks to her locker between Azula and Mai's as quickly as she can, and sees that they are not there.

It is unusual, but perhaps they also have had a hard morning. Ty Lee's has been utterly terrible, with her two hours of sleep and no shower and sloppy make-up she did in her car...

She walks to Government Class and sees Mai and Azula at last, already in the classroom as Azula has a conversation with their super, super hot teacher Mr. Saiko. Ty Lee waves and has no response, but she figures they are just too absorbed in their conversation.

Ty Lee heads to her seat beside them and without even looking at her, as if she has become invisible, Mai picks up her frayed designer bag and sets it on the chair. It takes Ty Lee a moment to realize before she sucks in a deep breath and her cheeks flush tomato red.

_Oh_.

Slowly, Ty Lee stumbles away and awkwardly takes a seat in the back of the class. She has clearly angered Azula, which Ty Lee is smart enough to know is _not a good thing_.

This is possibly the worst thing that has ever happened to Ty Lee in her life.

* * *

"I don't understand what I did wrong!" Ty Lee exclaims to Suki as she escapes the situation and considers forcing herself to vomit everywhere in order to get out of _every single_ class she is in, since she shares them all with Azula.

Suki narrows her eyes. "You don't think there's anything wrong with asking someone else on a date with you to homecoming when you're in a relationship?"

Ty Lee is standing with Suki outside of the library, trying to hide from Azula and Mai (or, at least, Ty Lee is). Suki listened to Ty Lee's story about Haru, which Suki had heard nothing about, and if she had, she would have certainly advised Ty Lee against it.

If there is any person in this school that Suki despises, it is her best friend's girlfriend. But, despite the fact that Azula absolutely tortured Suki for _years _of their education together, Suki _does _want Ty Lee to be happy. And there is certainly no way this poor decision could have had a happy ending.

"How do I fix it?" Ty Lee squeals, rubbing on so much chap-stick that the stick breaks and her lips and chin are left shimmering, oily and sticky.

Suki carefully confiscates the chap-stick she regrettably leant Ty Lee, and tucks it into her backpack.

"I really don't think you can," Suki says with a soft sigh. "Maybe you should break up with her."

Ty Lee pouts. "You're just saying that because she was so mean to you when we were like _twelve_."

"And you too," Suki adds, the swell of anger in her chest too much to ignore. As the leader of several clubs, and a passionate yet reserved and confident young woman who is responsible for a job and several people other than herself, she tries to keep anger or hatred to herself.

It simply does not look good if Suki wants to get into excellent colleges outside of this horrible nation of disgusting people. Kyoshi University sounds very nice, beachfront, yet not hot or humid, and with excellent credentials.

"Well, I have a heart for forgiveness and love ─"

"You have a heart for forgetting about who you were before puberty made you hot."

Ty Lee hesitates for a moment, feeling punched in the gut. Mai and Azula hate her, _Suki_ hates her...

She turns away and leaves, rubbing the tears in her eyes with the back of her hand as she goes to find someplace to hide.

Suki stares at her feet and feels guilt washing over her.

* * *

The dress Azula bought looks poisonous to her, and she glares at it for a few minutes before she can summon the willpower to actually put it on. She went shopping with Mai, whom happens to be the worst person to do something like that with. And now she is at last home, her feet sore and her phone turned off to end the two word texts from her best friend that show up every few minutes, as Mai remembers between her own selfish interests that Azula is absolutely miserable.

Mai is, after all, the only person who knows that Azula is not perfect. She is, after all, the person who showed up and decided to save Azula's life while she was home alone and forgotten by her father. Azula blinks that thought away and finishes zipping the taut dress onto herself.

Azula stares intently at herself in the mirror, studying and scrutinizing every inch of herself. She does know how beautiful she looks, how stunning the thick black make-up on her eyes looks, and how flattering the red dress is hugged against her body. She experiments with her hair up, and then with her hair down, and just sighs in the end.

The sequins dig into her ribs and she makes mental note to get them all torn off and replaced with something more comfortable.

She finds this entire dance very absurd, what she finds _more _absurd is Ty Lee getting herself a _date_ even though she claims she will spend the entire time with Azula and of course it will be _their _date and he completely understands. _Right_.

This stupid dance is two weeks away, and Azula is expected to attend the stupid football game for the obnoxious nonbenders and then pretend that she is lonely and undesirable by anyone, sharing her misery at a plastic coated table beside her sullen best friend.

Azula clenches her jaw and turns the mirror around, sitting down on her bed and sighing.

The only _real _way to get back at Ty Lee is to look absolutely hot and completely confident. To be so _wanted _that Ty Lee will be in absolute agony that she does not openly have her. Azula chews on her lower lip, already scheming.

Perhaps she is overreacting...

No, _no she is not_.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

* * *

"You look beautiful in that dress," father remarks honestly, and Azula is startled. She is still shocked that he even is allowing her to go to homecoming in the first place.

Particularly since her only excuse to go to the dance was the fact that she needed to be cheerleading at the football match, but Azula decided to skip and say she was sick. And no one was about to argue with the crown princess of an empire.

"Thank you, father," Azula says as she slowly spins and examines herself. _Yes_, Ty Lee will feel _pain _when she sees how amazing Azula looks.

"Just put on something under and over it. I can have something matching sent to you if you want," is of course what he adds on.

"You're just letting me go to this dance because it makes you look good and you don't want anyone to know that I did something worthy of grounding me over," Azula says quietly and he shrugs. Which means, of course, yes.

"I don't want you to go down that road again," Ozai says, as he always does. Azula clenches her jaw and goes to find a nude toned camisole and light red sweater that does not detract too much from the beauty of her body in the dress.

Azula stares in the mirror for a little while longer. No, no she doesn't want to go down that road again either, but it does not make her any less angry at her father.

She is escorted to the dance, and Mai comes with her. Azula might as well be alone. But she keeps looking both cold and pleased, smug and haughty. Like the person who is going to rule an empire in adulthood. And not the person who is bitter about a petty and small heartbreak.

"Please be civil with Ty Lee," Mai finds herself asking. Azula does not reply and Mai sighs.

Mai supposes she could not have hoped for that.

* * *

"I don't know what you expected, dating her," Mai says dryly as she and Azula wander to a table.

The dance is hosted at a country club in the sole patch of living land in Caldera Metropolis. Azula as heard that all of the plants and gardens are fake, and that the city synthesized them from flowers and seeds that had long ago gone extinct. Those, Azula thinks, are probably just rumors.

Apparently, the team won by a landslide, and everyone here is more than eager to celebrate. Azula has been to dances, although she hates them; her father forces her to stay for at least an hour and make an appearance so that the royal family looks good.

Ty Lee looked at Azula as she and Mai were taking their name cards and placing them at a table. The name cards are filled and, even if they were not, Ty Lee does not think she would be allowed to sit with them at this point.

And so she sits with her date, who is, of course, kissing and dancing with his girlfriend, despite the photos that his family and her family will be showing off for months to come. Suki looks bitter as she avoids talking to Ty Lee as well.

Wonderful. She feels like she is in middle school as a social pariah again. All because she did something stupid to the girl who she could have _anticipated this from._

It is Azula, it is Azula who made Ty Lee miserable before they fell so in love.

"The best revenge is not letting her ruin your time," Suki says in Ty Lee's ear as she helps her up. "Come, on, let's dance and you are going to look like you're having the time of your life."

Azula catches sight of it and turns to Mai, ignoring the other obnoxious children of politicians that Azula only used as filler at her table to make it look like she had plenty of friends outside of Ty Lee's cute little circle.

"Act like I'm telling you the best story you've ever heard," Azula demands, and Mai makes the most awkward facial expression in a genuine attempt. "Never mind."

Azula turns to the boy beside her she did not bother learning the name of.

"I want you to pretend to be really enjoying me for five minutes," Azula orders and he looks briefly intimidated before, of course agreeing. She is the Fire Lord's daughter, after all.

He plays along swimmingly with her story, and Azula can see Ty Lee glancing at her out of the corner of her eye, while Ty Lee tries to look good and happy dancing with her friends.

Oh, the fun has just begun.

* * *

Azula can dance. Ty Lee did not expect that, save for maybe her knowing a few ballroom steps. And then Ty Lee thinks about how little she knows about the girl she is so in love with, and she wonders if they are really meant for each other.

She is against one of the guys from her table but if Ty Lee can outdo her at anything, it is social events with other teenagers. Ty Lee could grab any boy and most girls in this room and have them eagerly dance with her, without using her power as the Fire Lord's daughter.

Oh, and she does. She can watch Azula's bitter anger as Ty Lee switches partners and only escalates as the music becomes higher and the night becomes longer.

Ty Lee is grinding against a pro-bender before she is suddenly grabbed by the wrist and pulled into a very tight bind.

"You really only had to ask," Ty Lee says as she is locked in motion with Azula. It feels more like fighting than dancing at this point, or maybe really angry sex, but Ty Lee might like it.

"Of course I only _had to ask_. You are the school slut."

"That is a ridiculous accusation. I'm just well liked," Ty Lee snaps, pressing closer against Azula. "Unlike you, who needs her dad's power to be _anybody_."

"Does it anger you to watch me get what I want as well?" Azula snaps, trying not to look offended. She does not think she is doing a good job of that.

"What is it you want?" Ty Lee says quietly as she can feel Azula against her.

Azula hesitates. "Many things. Society is built on the premise of desire and people working in order to fulfill their desires."

"Well, my... my desire is you," Ty Lee says quite angrily. "So..."

Ty Lee looks at Azula, and realizes how she truly does not know what she is doing, and how in her heart, Azula is always going to be that girl sitting in the shadows of the dance not wanting to be seen before leaving only an hour in and avoiding others.

The girl who has no clue how to flirt, but could still probably get into anybody's pants.

And Ty Lee only wants Azula to be in hers so...

Ty Lee kisses her as the music rises and they are masked from prying eyes by the raised hands and shrieks of other students.

"Come to the after party with me," Ty Lee says as their lips break apart. From the fact that Ty Lee's tongue and mouth are both intact, she can derive that Azula wants to be back together too. "We can go as _real _dates to that. I promise."

Azula smirks. "I would enjoy it."

* * *

Ty Lee wraps her arm around Azula's waist as they walk into the party, hosted at a very beautiful mansion near the park. It already repulses Azula from the moment she walks inside; she can see two people making out on a sofa, and she can see how loose people are, their laughter.

Azula is not this kind of popular. She is not the type of person who even knows what she is supposed to do in this situation. The party inside is swelteringly hot even though the air outside was cold and felt so nice against her skin.

"You said you wanted to live," Ty Lee whispers to Azula, taking her towards the dining room. It is decorated in the antique style that Azula has only seen in the palace, not her very modern apartment. "Let's live."

Princess Azula is just remembering the _princess _part of her name when she is interrupted by the sight of Haru and Jin, and Yue and Hahn, and how happy they look together. Azula rubs her lips together as Ty Lee is guiding her by the wrist like a ghost through the busy, loud home. Ty Lee produces two shot glasses as Azula starts to wonder if perhaps this is why Ty Lee did not consider her to be an adequate date.

And so she overly eagerly grabs the shot glass from Ty Lee. Azula takes a brief pause, wondering if this is a ridiculous idea. She _does _know how to drink, she _once was _a person who she does not want Ty Lee or anyone to know about. But she reaches under her stupid pink dress and pulls off the camisole and sweater her father forced her to wear.

She notices the leers, and she notices the discomfort on Ty Lee's face.

"Go easy, okay, princ ─ oh you, oh..." Ty Lee squints at Azula, wondering if she does not know her as well as she thought she did. "Right. Um ─" Ty Lee looks at her own filled glass and does drink it quickly as Azula just fills a second.

"It's not my first forest fire," Azula says over the music as she drinks that one as well. Oh, Azula is a sadistic, cruel person who could live a thousand lives and not deserve to be loved.

So maybe Azula should just prove that Ty Lee doesn't really love her in the first place.

Ty Lee does not know what to say to that. She has the image that everyone else does of Azula, and again, Ty Lee realizes that she does not know this girl at all, and she has dedicated her heart and soul to her and planned their wedding in her head.

"Do you want to dance with me," Ty Lee offers quickly as Azula is gathering a crowd, gazing intently at her as she takes another.

"Okay," Azula says smoothly, without even giving the onlookers a second thought. Ty Lee takes her towards the very full basement, and wonders why she is trying to hide Azula like that.

"Not your first forest fire?" Ty Lee asks as she takes Azula tightly with her. Claiming. Claiming her because _Agni she saw _those leers and how she suddenly had such violent thoughts.

"I didn't say such a thing," Azula replies sweetly and Ty Lee frowns briefly before collecting herself. "Political occasions can take some very strong drinks to get through. Stuffy and awful."

She is lying her cheeks off but Ty Lee looks so relieved. Azula does not know if she likes the relief or wants to crush it and upset her girlfriend again, but she has little to say to that as she takes the small dance turned private conversation to pressing Ty Lee gently (or maybe not so gently she is unsure) against the wall.

Azula kisses Ty Lee quite fiercely and there is such discomfort. It does not feel right to either of them, not for a second.

"I don't know you," Ty Lee says out of nowhere and Azula just stares at her. "I don't know you at all and I wish I did. Is any of this ever real? Or am I just some kind of conquest, because you used to be my enemy?"

Ty Lee is thinking of Suki's words in the hallway. And she did not believe that... because she thought that she _knew _Azula.

"You don't need to know me. You just need to know that I want you," Azula says and she does not think those are the words she is supposed to say as she tries to kiss Ty Lee again and her girlfriend slips out of her arms and away, looking panicked.

Azula wishes someone had taught her how to interact with other humans instead of how to interact with underlings and peasants.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom real quick," Ty Lee says swiftly and Azula knows she is not coming back, and so she drifts listlessly through the smoky rooms. Are they smoky or is she just feeling hazy?

Azula at last bumps into someone she knows. Mai. Who opens her mouth before Azula speaks over her, "Don't tell me I shouldn't be here."

"I wasn't going to say that. I was just going to say that I think your date is crying in the bathroom," Mai says carelessly as she shrugs. But Azula cannot deny how Mai grabs her friend by the wrist like a handcuff.

_Like she always did. Like she was Azula's _caretaker_. Like she did when she brought Azula home to her father and betrayed her forever. _

"She isn't my date, remember? She went with Haru," Azula says sweetly, not resisting Mai's leash on her, but tugging them both in the opposite direction of wherever the sobbing girl is waiting for her.

"You get mean at parties and social events," Mai sighs as she just lets Azula drag her. She knows perfectly well that Azula and Ty Lee could not last, and absolutely should _not last_.

After everything Mai and Azula put Ty Lee through, Mai has always had the suspicion that Ty Lee considered Azula some ultimate conquest, and Azula considered her to be a conquest for the exact same reason. That was, of course, after Azula got out of the hospital and was reeling from the fallout, and puberty made Ty Lee hot and drop all of her past like it was on fire.

Mai watches and stops nothing as Azula loses count of her drinks, and they both lose track of Ty Lee.

"You need to go home," Mai says as she corners Azula in the beautiful backyard zen garden. It is not very calming or pleasant with the ponds and fire fountains surrounded by drunk teenagers.

Azula is slumped against a statue, looking very unpleasant.

"I do, don't I?" Azula says breathily as she offers a hand to Mai. "We should find her."

"You are very drunk now, and I know you don't think that because you are... you, but you aren't in any state to talk to that girl," Mai says firmly, taking Azula.

"Carry me," Azula whispers into Mai's ear, and Mai sighs before complying.

"When did I become your nanny?" Mai mutters as she helps Azula into her arms and towarsd her back.

"No, no, carry me like a baby..."

"A bridal carry. Let's call it that." Neither is more comfortable for Mai, and this position does involve a vice grip on her neck, but Azula is quite light and her limbs are loose.

Mai nearly smashes Azula's face into a wall when she sees the dining room.

"Come on. Don't look at that." Mai rips a protesting Azula out of her arms and wraps her up like she has seen bodyguards do. They make it out, and no one bothers them.

Azula is in the back of Mai's car when she starts to be hit by the memories she was trying to suppress tonight.

_She wants to do this. Yes, she wants to do this. And she is going to because she is free and he can go fuck himself and Azula is her own person and she is on _fire _right now. She can't remember exactly what she has taken as she wonders when searching for control turned in to losing control._

_ Azula is enjoying herself as she falls against the mattress, her back hitting the twin bed and she lets the strange brunette roll up the bottom of her shirt._

"We're going to my house. And I am going to call your father from there, and you will probably not be fine in the morning, but this was a horrible idea and I have no idea why you listened to that girl," Mai says sharply as she takes Azula away.

And hopes that no one tells Azula exactly _why _Mai thinks Ty Lee is just so bad for Azula.

_"No, no," and Azula cannot imagine how this half-drunk dream turned into a nightmare._

_ Because she is being grabbed by the arms and forcibly dressed by armed soldiers._

_ Because she is watching the walls tumble around her._

_ Because she watches as one soldier pulls the trigger of a gun._

Azula does manage to forget, once she curls up on Mai's bed, with Mai sleeping on the floor, and goes to sleep.

Her sleep is dreamless, at least.

She deserves that when her waking hours are about to be a nightmare.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

* * *

Azula wakes up feeling awful. And she has the sudden realization that she is in someone else's bed, and the sun is rising. At first, she is convinced she has accidentally gone home with someone, which utterly terrifies her. But then she sees the familiar walls of her best friend's room and the tightness in her chest releases.

But she needs to brush her teeth. No, she needs something sweet to drink first. And for Mai to close her _curtains_, the insensitive jerk.

Azula slides partially down the bed, feeling dizzy and deplorable as she pokes the girl curled on the floor with her toes. Mai does not stir, and so Azula kicks her and _that _wakes her up.

"Why would you leave the curtains open? Also, get me something to drink and a new toothbrush; I utterly refuse to use my fingers," Azula rasps as Mai is first waking up and feeling the crook in her neck and ache in her legs.

"Well, of course, seeing as I am your immortal servant," Mai sighs before standing up and drawing the curtains.

"What happened to me and Ty Lee last night? Did I do something awful?"

"You always do something awful, princess," Mai says as she starts digging through her medicine cabinet and seeking out a box of toothbrushes.

"No." Azula is quiet for a moment, her eyes closed and her patience running as dry as her mouth. "What am I supposed to do? I want her back. Give me some advice?"

Mai squints at the mirror as she finally gets a toothbrush.

"I'm not very good at advice. Can I interest in you in a sarcastic comment?"

Azula throws a pillow at her, and Mai rolls her eyes.

She goes home to her father, escorted after cleaning herself up and wearing sunglasses inside. Azula figures that she is able to do so without looking suspicous, given the fact that she is famous enough to warrant wearing sunglasses whenever she wants.

Princess Azula had anticipated that her father would already be at work, but he was at their quite expensive kitchen table, reorganizing political meetings on his phone as his breakfast were completely neglected. He does not, of course, seem to even notice that she walked in. And so she drops her heels as loudly as she can and walks to the table, hating the bright sunlight pouring through the penthouse windows.

"Mai told me you decided to have a sleepover after the party," Ozai comments and, while feeling so _off_, Azula cannot tell if he is questioning her story or not. "You look worse for wear. Clearly you haven't remembered your press meeting this afternoon."

And Azula was going to ask to go to bed for the day and not be disturbed even if the sky was falling or the Fire Nation was being invaded.

"Of course I remember. But I'm going back to sleep now," Azula says and all she gets a distracted nod.

She dreamt about the boiling point that sent them over the edge. It was not a pleasant thing to remember, but Azula just keeps going forward.

* * *

_**Azula and Ty Lee **_met and fell in love during their second year of high school. A lot of things had changed that made it possible.

Azula was incredibly pretty. Even in those awkward phases, she was beautiful, and always seemed perfect. Everything about Princess Azula was perfect, and so, it was completely baffling that she seemed to be alone most of the time, except for the odd girl who spent all of her time in the art room not doing art.

Ty Lee would look at how she scaled the stairs of the school in pointed red heels without slipping or even glancing down if she were to fall. And she was not sure if she should hate her or want to be her.

Of course, she was an absolute, cruel terror until she hit fourteen and disappeared for a year, just vanished, kind of like her brother, but only temporarily. When she came back, she was this gorgeous girl who knew all of the answers in class and Ty Lee would feel even more on edge than the young male history teacher when she would absentmindedly put that light blue highlighter in her mouth while thinking.

It was the same year that Azula had gone through the shift that made Ty Lee wonder if her father had replaced her with a robot like in those sci-fi movies Ty Lee now pretended that she never watched, that Ty Lee also had gone through a shift.

_"She's so pretty. Why is she such a loser?" _was the general consensus on Ty Lee for a very long time.

_"She has such nice eyes; why does she look like she never brushes her hair?"_

Whispers that Suki told Ty Lee to ignore. But Ty Lee had one of those odd summers when she found a new crowd of friends who welcome her into their arms openly. They introduced her to a world of make-up, confidence and everything in between.

Ty Lee was incredibly pretty. But it was only when one of her new friends showed her what it was like to stand out from her family of identically perfect people by being a stunning and unforgettable girl instead of a weird, talented gymnast, martial artist and apparently in touch with the Spirit World.

It was those different people who fell in love. It was the girl who used to make Ty Lee's life misery that suddenly noticed Ty Lee.

But she would be as disgusted as she was about the boys who all suddenly wanted her if it were not for the day that Ty Lee never even told Suki about. Because it was the day that Ty Lee was fairly assured that Azula was not a robot, or even that perfect human being.

Ty Lee was in the bathroom, hiding, mostly, from a class in which she didn't do the reading for. She knew that they probably wouldn't even care at some point, and it was deserted. It was the heels that Azula walked in like sneakers that she first saw opening the door into the overly sterile and incensed bathroom.

"Oh, it's just you," was the first thing Azula had said to Ty Lee since she got pretty and Azula stopped addressing her only in clever insults.

"You're..." Ty Lee pouted, unsure if she should address the fact that she was clearly on the verge of tears. "I have some make-up remover and concealer if you want it."

Azula said nothing as she studied Ty Lee like some kind of dangerous beast. Her nod was curt and rather commanding, but Ty Lee watched her throw her somehow never dirty or ripped bag at the wall and sit down in one of the pretty, plush lounge chairs by the line of mirrors.

She clearly did not want to cry in front of Ty Lee, but it happened anyway. Ty Lee tried not to stare, and just fumbled with the tubes of cosmetics in her sweaty hands. At last, however, she could not bear it, and so she leapt down from the light pink marble and the multitude of mirrors and walked to sit across from the tormentor of her childhood and princess of her nation.

"Is there something I can do?" Ty Lee asked and Azula stared at her with an odd distortion of her lip. "You don't have to tell me anything, but I can sit here, if you want."

And sit there Ty Lee did. Silently, waiting, not wondering for an instant why she was helping someone she had hated for so long.

"Why are you even still here?" Azula asked after her shaking body was no longer too overwhelming. "You must enjoy it so much."

Ty Lee shook her head as fast as she could. "Of course I didn't like you crying. Take the make-up and I'll get you tissues."

Princess Azula waited, and Ty Lee could see how, while she even sat in her desk as if it were a throne, she was slumped in the chair like a collapsed doll. Or a _collapsed _person.

Azula took the tissues without a word of thank you, but Ty Lee managed no to roll her eyes, as she wanted.

Ty Lee hesitated for a moment. "So, I know one thing about you now."

"That I'm so pathetic, just like you?" Azula asked, but her tone was not as jagged and painful as it had been so many times before.

"No. I am pretty sure you're not a robot," Ty Lee said with a teensy and hopeful smile.

Azula quite hollowly laughed at that. "You got hot."

Ty Lee then was frowning. "Okay, I just sat here with you while you cried my eyes out, and you comment on the most obvious thing, the thing that _everybody _notices..."

"You got hot and now you are extremely confident. I like that. It takes a lot of nerve to watch a princess cry when she's trying to be alone, and even more, to offer help to someone who went out of her way to make you miserable for years," Azula continued quite eloquently and it gave Ty Lee pause.

"I always wanted to get to know you. Not this idea of you. I think there's a real you underneath all of the obviously chrome," Ty Lee said, standing up, her knees cracking before she offered a playful wink in hopes that it would make this less awkward.

Azula just watched her leave. For the rest of the day, the princess looked as cold as ever, but at lunch, she sat across from Ty Lee, and it was the beginning of a very unusual friendship.

...

Ty Lee wakes up in her bed to the sound of people screaming and fighting, as usual. She presses her make-up stained pillow to herself in hopes of drowning it out and going back to sleep.

But she just can't. She then starts thinking and wondering why she never really got to know Azula. She knows that it was a moment of vulnerability that started it, but Ty Lee thinks she will never know why Azula was crying that day. Or why she could drink like that.

Or, mostly, why she disappeared and came back as changed as the pretty and perky Ty Lee.

She thinks for a moment, first with anger, then recalling table dancing like a fool, hoping for scraps to make her feel better about herself. Ty Lee doesn't think Azula saw her; Mai dragged her out, or so Ty Lee recalls through the haze.

The decision is probably stupid, but Ty Lee finds her phone and types out a message to Azula.

_I hope you aren't grounded until you're Fire Lord again. And also that you're okay. Want to..._

Ty Lee stops there, unsure what she should type next. She groans in frustration and throws her phone onto her fuzzy pink carpet.

She needs more time to think this through.

Azula probably does too.


	7. Chapter 7

Ty Lee spends her entire morning wondering if she should send Azula the message or not. She feels gross from her night out, but she feels even worse about the fact that things went so awry for she and her date. _Not her date_.

Asking Haru was such a mistake. And so was pushing Azula like she did, particularly at the party. Ty Lee wants closure, answers and maybe a taste of happily ever after. That should not be too much to ask for, but she still keeps debating.

Ty Lee has never redrafted or even proofread anything she has written. Texts to friends, notes, essays... but she cannot stop staring at and changing the words of what she wants to say.

Does she even _know _what she wants to say?

Ty Lee walks downstairs after her very long morning beauty ritual, and sits down beside her mother. Her mom is making marks on her students' essays as she gazes at a commercial for plastic surgery to attain those _perfect _Fire Nation features.

Those features Ty Lee does not have, but is beautiful without.

"Mom... you're a professor..." Ty Lee begins, unsure how to say any of this.

"Did you just notice?" Her mother chuckles and sips her lemony tea.

"No, I... you're good at saying the words you want to say," Ty Lee begins as she sits down on the plush sofa. "Can I ask you for something?"

"Yes. But there's some press conference with the Fire Lord on in a few minutes that I can't miss. I'm demanding that my students watch it, after all." But mom does put down her papers and look at Ty Lee.

It makes Ty Lee _almost _feel truly loved. Instead of just another initial on another uniform item or clothes rack in the messy apartment. At least sometimes mom will just talk to her.

"I have this..." Ty Lee looks down at the floor. She _knows _this is probably treason, but she knows she can be vague enough. "I have this girlfriend. And..."

"But you brought Haru to homecoming?" mom asks before realizing what Ty Lee is saying. "Oh. Is she not allowed to date?"

"You could say that." Ty Lee grimaces and sets her phone down in front of her mom. Mom holds it closer, and then in front of her, and at last grabs her glasses to read it. "I really upset her last night and I want to tell her how I feel. And that I'm sorry and I think I actually might love her."

Mom then purses her lips and sets down the phone. Slowly, she removes her glasses and neatly sets them aside.

"You need to tell her in person. That isn't something you could write. Even in a thousand page novel," mom insists and Ty Lee _hates _how right she is.

But before they can continue their conversation, the commercial ends and the program begins. Princess Azula looks incredible on television. Even today, when she has had so many layers of make-up and odd things poked into her to mask her rough night, the attention all goes directly to her, even if the cameras are aimed at her father.

She will speak, of course, and Ty Lee watches, chewing on her cereal and nearly breaking her teeth a few times when she finds herself chewing on nothing. And then biting on the spoon too hard before giving up on breakfast altogether.

Ty Lee looks at this image, this image that is so very different from the hurt girl who was so angry about Haru. Or the girl getting drunk at a party in hopes of somehow scoring Ty Lee in some inexplicable way. The girl who sucks on her blue highlighter, leaving traces of sticky red lipstick.

This girl, is the girl who will one day lead an empire. This girl, is the girl that everyone adores and talks about. This girl, is the girl who is dressed smoothly in business clothes, and not a uniform that starts the day flawless but winds up looking like she went through a tornado by the afternoon.

Ty Lee watches Azula, and is hypnotized by her, like everyone else is. The way she _talks_, the way she _looks _at people. It makes somebody feel important, even if Azula has no idea who they are. And, more importantly, it makes Azula seem very important, and seem like the kind of person you want to follow without batting an eye at anything odd.

She takes after her grandfather, then. Her grandfather, who turned against Sozin's regime, and used the war _and _the peace he instilled as an advantage. Ozai, while charismatic and clearly powerful, does not possess that kind of internal power.

It is probably something that people are just born with.

Or maybe the ability to start and end wars with a few sentences skips a generation.

Ty Lee smiles a little bit at that, and then remembers her dinner with Ozai. And _then _gets an incredibly terrible but incredibly good idea at the same time. She grabs her favorite pink sweater, adjusts her make-up that took her over an hour to apply, seizes her purse and races out to go get the girl she knows.

Not the beautiful robot on the television screen. The completely dysfunctional and awkward human who happens to probably secretly be filled with wires inside.

* * *

Azula sits down in the cool, air conditioned dressing room that smells like orange incense. Her father is still finishing up a few things, but she has been sent to lurk here alone. And cope with both her hangover and the fact that father is absolutely going to be talking to her about last night when they get home.

Unfortunately for her, father does not wait until they get home. They are both sitting in the limousine when he decides to breach the topic.

"What did you really do last night?" Ozai says and his quietness reveals the severity.

At Zuko, he shouts, rages. That's how Zuko got so brutally burnt. At Azula, he becomes very quiet and severe. That's how Azula knows she is better off, but hates it all the same.

"I went to an after-party with Mai," Azula says and his muscles tense. "I didn't do anything that you're thinking. But yes I did drink and _no _it wasn't a problem. I had Mai drive me home when I was done and it all was fine."

Ozai is now an alarming level of quiet. Quieter than he was when he picked her up from the hospital and told her exactly how things were going to change. Quieter than he was when Azula's outburst that landed her in said hospital occurred.

Azula hates that. "It was only an after-party. Only a party. What were you doing at my age, anyway?"

"Going to after-parties and fucking girls your age. And I regret all of the things I did when I was young. I won't see you make them. Not after you putting me through Koh's Realm and back," Ozai states and Azula wants to punch him.

For the first time in her life, she wants to punch him. And only because he is looking out for her best interest. She feels so ridiculous about that that she sighs and slumps in her chair. He seems to see it as a sign of defeat and submission, and it eases a bit of the tension in the limousine.

"That was two years ago," Azula says, hoping she does not sound indignant. "And I turned my life around. I did it myself and you were proud."

_Proud_. Her father was proud of her for brushing her hair and not going into hysterics about not being able to find her shoe immediately. His pride was always difficult to earn, which either speaks for his desperation at the time, or how weak he saw Azula as then.

"I know. You've kept it up and have been doing very well. You have the perfect life, and I refuse to let you risk it like that again," Ozai says and their conversation comes comfortably to a premature end when they reach their building.

They walk inside and are met by a girl sitting on the luxury benches, being given rather nasty looks by the staff and the few other privileged residents.

"Ty Lee." Azula's mouth could not have been drier, but she thinks it somehow is.

"That's your friend from dinner," Ozai says, not mentioning the skipping school incident. Azula glances at him, wondering if he will do the right thing and send her away because of said incident. "Perhaps she would like to stay for dinner again."

Then Azula realizes it. Ozai would rather host a dinner with the girl who got his daughter to become a cheerleader and skip school than continue the discussion about the very unsolved familial issues.

Not that they won't burst when Zuko comes home for the holidays in a few weeks, but Azula and Ozai are trying not to think about that.

Ty Lee moves to hug Azula, and then hesitates. She knows Azula probably does not want to hug her, but, nonetheless, the princess embraces her if only to make sure that Ozai does not sense the rift between them. A rift that would lead to investigation, that would lead to their relationship being found out.

In the private elevator, Azula and Ozai are silent and robotic, while Ty Lee shifts her weight and wrings her hands and tries to think of anything possible to say.

Once they reach their penthouse, Ty Lee looks at Azula and tries to show with her eyes how much she wants to say.

She thinks Azula can tell, but she also thinks that they are going to have to endure this dinner first.

* * *

The dinner goes better than the first. Which is not a huge statement, but Ty Lee did actually have a few things to say that she knew Fire Lord Ozai would like, and Azula could tell that he was warming up to Ty Lee by the end.

He even let her sleep over for the night, again. At least this time it is a weekend, and at least this time, Azula and Ty Lee are not so desperate to touch each other that they would risk so much in Azula's bedroom.

"Is there something you want to say?" Azula asks and Ty Lee nods.

"I want to say that I'm sorry, and also that I really don't know much about you." Ty Lee waits for that one to explode, but it does not. "And I want to know you. I want to be with you, and I want to be openly with you."

Azula is not sure what to say to that, or what she is supposed to do.

"Can you just get into my bed and we watch a movie?" Azula offers coldly and Ty Lee bites down on her lip.

It is easier, Ty Lee knows, but she wishes that her profuse sweating, pounding heart and emotional expression would have made Azula budge. All the same, Azula does lie very close beside her, and Ty Lee does not see the end of the movie once slender fingers are making irresistible circles around the inside of her thighs.

Ty Lee turns around and kisses her, pressing their bodies even more tightly together. They are beneath blankets and trying very hard to seem like normal friends and not two lovers removing each other's clothes and unable to keep from tasting each other beneath Azula's thick red comforter.

This is perfect, and Ty Lee loves the roaring heat within her.

They lie there together, sweaty and intertwined. The moaning was kept quiet enough by the urgent insistence of each other, and now they can actually hear the film. Not that they have any idea what is happening in it. It looks pretty boring in Ty Lee's opinion. Azula agrees.

"We aren't fixed, are we?" Ty Lee asks quietly.

"That _was _definitely make-up sex, though."

"Better than break-up sex," the cheerleader admits happily, even though she has a bit of a sunken sensation inside of her.

"Well, we can definitely say that homecoming as a couple ended slightly better than it started," Azula offers, trying on Ty Lee's disgusting optimism on for size.

Ty Lee chortles. "It ended slightly better than it started."

"Mhm," is Azula response, her breath tickling Ty Lee's neck.

"I want that engraved on my tombstone, okay? It ended slightly better than it started."

They both are smiling now, in the darkness.

Ty Lee nestles further into her girlfriend's arms, and hopes that tomorrow will be slightly better than today.


	8. Chapter 8

It is morning, and Ty Lee is going to get Azula to open up about their relationship.

So help her, it _will _happen.

She is thinking about it as she slowly wakes up beside the princess. Her body warm and humming, Ty Lee stretches like a cat, feeling every small pop of her bones and the relief that comes with it. The afterglow of sex is within her, and the glow of morning penetrates the glass of Azula's bedroom window.

Ty Lee can hear the sound of the city outside. It is loud already, people already making their way here and there, through the mundane existences that they lead. Ty Lee has always refused to live a life like that, even if she did wind up selling herself out.

Alright. The sick, fucked up truth is that Ty Lee had never been as happy in her life as when she gave up the messy girl with dirt under her fingernails and a belief in magic and spirits and became the beautiful, puffy lipped and pretty Ty Lee who got the kind of attention she truly desired.

And that kind of attention comes very strongly from Azula.

They were enemies once, and now? Now Azula is so in love with Ty Lee that she would be heartbroken over homecoming. Ty Lee likes that, even if she refuses to admit it.

"Azula," Ty Lee whispers, very gently poking her girlfriend. Azula stirs slightly, her mostly naked body rubbing against the soft cotton blankets that engulf her.

She does not wake at first, but then, at last, she does. Her golden eyes flutter open, and she lingers half between sleep and wakefulness. The warmth in her blankets is comforting, particularly because it comes from the girl beside her.

Princess Azula has the sudden revelation that she had sex with her girlfriend in her house, fell asleep beside her, and has now woken beside her, without her father being any the wiser. It feels funny, and a tad liberating. While Azula _does _love her father, she has never really tasted rebellion before, outside of her past downward spiral.

Sometimes it can be impossibly frustrating to be the perfect daughter, perfect princess, perfect _everything_. Sometimes she just wants to be tangled in bed with a person she is likely not supposed to be sleeping with.

"Do you wanna try to make breakfast?" Ty Lee suggests quite excitedly.

Azula contemplates telling her that there is a _staff _for that, but it does sound interesting enough. She has never cooked before, but she assumes she will be fantastic at it. Perhaps she can show father just how mature and far from disappointing and disheveled she is.

"Alright. I suppose we can," Azula agrees airily, and they both sit up.

Without hesitation, Azula kisses Ty Lee during the last moments of genuine safety. Within Azula's bedroom, shades drawn and no father about to walk right in.

Even when not sucking on ring pops in the most sultry of ways, Ty Lee tastes like fruit flavored candy. Not in the sense of her actually tasting like blue raspberry, but in the sense of being so tempting yet so very bad for you.

Azula did once, as a stupid child, lock herself in her room with an entire box of unopened hard candy. It was nothing she was ever allowed within the vicinity of, with her overbearing father nearby. And it was so briefly after mother died that he was even more tyrannical and protective.

But she ate the entire box. It didn't taste like fruit.

It tasted like sugar and defiance.

Ty Lee's lips taste exactly like that.

The princess finds her girlfriend something to wear, and dresses herself. They stand in Azula's bathroom, both getting ready, brushing their teeth, applying make-up. Ty Lee genuinely wants to blurt out that this must be what it feels like to be a couple that _lives _together, and how exciting that is, but she thinks that perhaps it will scare Azula away.

Ty Lee needs to warm up to that kind of thing.

They end up in the kitchen, which is usually in relative disuse. Ty Lee examines more of Azula's home, which she last saw while in a bit of a heart-pounding and horrifying situation of being nearly caught by Fire Lord Ozai. It is the opposite of homey, despite the red and gold.

And the kitchen? Even more detached and lifeless.

Even though Ty Lee's parents always order food or go out to dinner, having no time for such peasant tasks as cooking, it is the center of her home. Everyone is always in there. Doing homework, messing around, breaking the ice machine and then trying to subtly fix it. There is so much noise, so much _life_.

Azula's penthouse might as well be a mausoleum.

"Okay," Ty Lee says, opening the fridge. The number pad and high tech fixtures that the cheerleader ignores were designed by her father, she notices. "You have eggs. That's a start. Omelet? Omelets are easy, and _also _the true sign of a good chef."

"I don't know how to make one of those." But she does know how to demand one of them.

"Do you want me to teach you?" Ty Lee offers, batting her eyelashes.

And, while Azula finds Ty Lee teaching her anything to be absurd, she plays along. It baffles Azula that she is doing this much playing along ─ she has no clue what has gotten into her this morning, but it is extremely odd. Must be the sex.

Yes, of course. Definitely the sex.

They wind up scavenging in the kitchen, finding odds and ends that do not truly add up to what Ty Lee is looking for.

"Well, I guess olive oil can't hurt. I heard it's healthier, maybe?" Ty Lee grimaces, glancing at the expensive bottle in her hand. It _does _say that it has lemon juice in it, but Ty Lee does not think it should make too much of a difference. Lemon flavor is never bad, after all.

And so she quickly gets to work on the omelet, Azula pretending to be involved and trying to learn. That is, pretending and studying her nails until Ty Lee makes a very nervous groaning sound. Azula moves to prevent her apartment from being set ablaze, but then she sees what is supposed to be an omelet.

"_What_ is _that_?" Azula asks in utter derision and horror. "Those aren't even... _what did you do to those eggs?_"

Ty Lee grimaces. "Uhm. They're fine."

They are definitely not fine. They look kind of like curdled milk, except much more frightening.

"If carpet cleaner could decompose, it would smell like that. Are you trying to poison me?" Azula snaps and Ty Lee quickly removes the pan from the burner.

"I think it might have been the lemon." Ty Lee scratches her neck, and before she and Azula can figure out what to do with the massacred attempt at breakfast, they are interrupted.

Ty Lee glances up to see Azula's father, adjusting his tie and looking with relative disdain at the dreadful mess.

Neither girl has an explanation for what looks like a gruesome failed science experiment.

The Fire Lord glances at the pan still in Ty Lee's hand and says, "I am going to a dull brunch at the races. Perhaps you two would like to come."

Well, he saved breakfast... or brunch.

* * *

Ty Lee has been to the races once or twice, but they never entertained her. Chimera Technologies always hosted a party and luncheon here, but Ty Lee found it pretty boring. But sometimes her mom would let her gamble, even if she was not of age yet.

She felt like a kajillionaire for winning a couple of silver pieces.

All the same, this place is _far _from magical. Mongoose-dragon races are actually monumentally boring, and all look pretty much the same. But Ty Lee has never been up into this portion of the few restaurants situated on the grounds.  
Nor has she been here this early in the day before. The first race doesn't even start until late afternoon.

The brunch _does _look boring, and so she and Azula grab seats beside a grand, wide window looking out at the muddy tracks. Azula picks at her food, at least finding it more appetizing than the horror that Ty Lee had accidentally created.

She has much more of a hunger for that forbidden fruit flavored candy.

"I suppose we're supposed to have some kind of tour after this, to keep us out of the diplomats' hair," Azula mutters as she jabs at her blood orange. "You like animals... probably."

"_Probably_," Ty Lee says with a wide but slightly sad smile. "We don't know each other all that well, princess, do we?"

Azula cannot help but agree with that. No, no they don't. Not in the slightest.

But, to be perfectly honest, she does not _want _Ty Lee to know her. Azula is not the kind of person who was ever meant to be known, understood or loved, despite everything that Ty Lee so viciously presses in their relationship.

"Well, we know each other in much more important ways." Azula winks and hopes that the sexual nature of her words will just make Ty Lee blush and return to her waffles. But it is to absolutely no avail.

"I used to think you were a robot. Sometimes I think you still are," Ty Lee says quietly, her eyes focused on how neatly and precisely Azula has cut her orange. The juice barely even trickles onto the light red plate.

"Does my spine light up bright red when we ─?" Azula is interrupted by her father yet again. She exhales and smiles faintly at him, hoping sincerely that he did not overhear her quite cheeky conversation.

"The tour awaits you both," he says and Azula, for the first time, picks up on the strange tension in the room. Mostly coming from the men that Azula recognizes as Water Tribe.

Azula gets up, and Ty Lee takes her hand.

The princess yanks the grasp apart, saying coldly, "You have _syrup _on your hands. What are you, four?"

Ty Lee rolls her eyes and sets out to find a drinking fountain or sink to clean herself up in.

* * *

The tour is lovely. Ty Lee thought the races were a grim and dirty place, and, indeed, they are. But they manage to highlight only the nice parts.

"I'm petting it!" Ty Lee declares excitedly, her loud tone declaring her thrill of stroking the baby mongoose-dragon to the entire world.

"Good work," Azula remarks with a small smirk. "That takes such immense skill."

Ty Lee rolls her eyes and touches the nose of the sweet reptile with her soft fingers.

Azula is not going to rain on her fun day.

But the actual storm clouds might. The sky is getting progressively greyer and greyer as Azula and Ty Lee finish their private tour and head back to the main halls of the stadium. People are beginning to line up at the gates in fancy clothes, and the two girls make it to Ozai just as lightning angrily crashes.

The races might be cancelled, and everyone is in discontent about that fact.

Ty Lee can feel their agitated auras from across the muddy grounds.

"May I go to sleep over at Ty Lee's house, father?" Azula inquires in a sugary voice, and Ozai does not know what to say to that.

He does like this friend. Ty Lee is pretty, obviously not that bright, wears make-up and seems to keep Azula on the sweet little Fire Nation darling path, and not careening downhill to where she was not long ago. Ozai finds her more palatable than Mai, when he gets past the fact that she convinced his daughter to be a _cheerleader_.

Innocuous, he supposes.

"Go ahead. I'll send for you to be driven there."

* * *

It is thundering, pouring and possibly on the verge of a monsoon by midday, and Azula and Ty Lee are being driven in the back of a limousine to Ty Lee's house.

"I think you need an off day," Ty Lee says after concluding her long story about Yue and her quite interesting interactions with Sokka over the past weekend. Azula could not care less about those trivial wastes of space, but she does like any and all conversation that does not involve deep introspection or more of Ty Lee's attempts to make Azula commit further to their relationship.

What's an off day?" Azula jokes and Ty Lee faintly smiles. "I've never heard of that."

Ty Lee squints at the stormy skies through the tinted window. "An off day is when you eat cookie dough out of the tube ─"

"I refuse to contract salmonella. It's an incredibly undignified illness for the future Fire Lord." Azula crosses her arms over her chest.

To that, Ty Lee can only roll her eyes.

"You've _never _eaten cookie dough out of the tube?" Ty Lee finds that _impossible _to believe. Preposterous even.

"Robots don't eat cookie dough." Azula hesitates for a second. "Or cookies."

"Well, my beautiful robot lady, you're going to do it." Ty Lee crawls across the smooth leather seats and raps viciously on the window separating them from the driver. "Drop us off at the Five and Silver."

The chauffeur agrees, turning at the next stoplight. Ty Lee grins wickedly at Azula, the plans already unfolding in her head. Oh, she is going to completely liberate this girl.

Azula thinks this afternoon might turn out quite interesting.

"Lemme tell you something," Ty Lee says as she crawls back and stops just short of straddling the princess. "Tonight I'm gonna shatter your chrome and make you feel like a human."

"Mhmm?" Azula likes that.

"Oh, but not just sex. There will be cookie dough. And some more supplies... I don't think we'll be returning to my house too quickly tonight." Ty Lee's eyes are sparkling with feverish joy and excitement. "So help me, princess, today is going to end slightly better than it started!"

Azula is both repulsed and enthralled, and has no clue what to make of her conflicting desires.


	9. Chapter 9

The quaint dating couple stands out of a minimart, with Ty Lee walking towards it casually, and Azula with a disdainful expression on her face. It suddenly occurs to Ty Lee why Azula is clearly tentative about something that could not possibly get her into any trouble.

"Have you never been in a grocery store?" Ty Lee asks with wide, incredulous eyes.

"Well, no," Azula replies with an uncomfortable look in her eyes. She straightens her back and tries to maintain her proud posture. "I imagine we won't get accosted?"

"It's a grocery store," Ty Lee says brightly before offering her hand to the princess. Azula rejects her, but Ty Lee is certain that she thought about taking her up on it.

"It is cold and fluorescent. I hate fluorescent lights. I usually refuse to go anywhere with them unless they are disabled and replaced with something more aesthetically pleasing before my arrival," Azula says and Ty Lee does not think that she is joking.

Ty Lee walks inside and can't help but comment, "You're kind of like a mermaid coming to land for the first time." Then Azula looks skeptical again and Ty Lee giggles against her better judgment. "Oh, you know, that silly Water Tribe story? It's had a million movies based on it? Hmph." Ty Lee suddenly stops walking and Azula's ankle twists in preparing to possibly fight the stack of soda cases. "You _are _a robot."

"I'm not," Azula says, looking overly unhappy. Ty Lee decides to locate the cookie dough as quickly as possible, and Azula remains close to her, eyeing every single person and display in the store with unease.

"So, why have you never been in a grocery store?"

"Because I'm a princess and people bring me things like this. My fridge might as well magically restock itself. I've never seen anyone put more food in it, but it does appear." Azula then sighs. "I'm fucking with you. You really do think I'm a robot, don't you?"

"Mmmmm. Maybe." Ty Lee grins and squints around for frozen food.

"Where did me being a robot even _come from_?" Azula demands and Ty Lee smiles. And then the grin fades, Azula watching her closely for some sign of a reason.

"You disappeared for a whole year, you know? I know we didn't know each other then, but you used to be, I don't know. You've always been kind of cold and metal-y, but you vanished and came back dressed different and talking different and not going to the same places or talking to the same people..." Ty Lee frowns faintly again. "I'm really not kidding about the robot thing. Maybe your dad replaced you with one. I mean, Zuko disappeared and never came back."

Azula lets that sink in for a moment. The fact that Ty Lee noticed, or that anyone noticed her absence. Well, of course, _anyone _would, but no one is a fool enough to mention it. The shame of it would overwhelm father, and she is the last thing he has in the world.

She has that vivid, pained memory of sneaking around, happy, sort of happy with someone. But it was ripped from her like a slow, torturous removal of a bandage. It peeled up on her before being yanked off, as if that would dull the pain.

Over it, Azula is. She is over that girl and she barely remembers her name, of course.

"I might very well be a robot," Azula says as she realizes that Ty Lee seems to be awaiting an answer. "You never know in a world like this, do you?"

Ty Lee shakes her head. "Nupe. Okay, _tube _or _squares_?"

Azula stares at the lines of cookie dough with different cute Fire Nation mascots, and one Water Tribe grandmotherly looking woman. And she has absolutely no clue what to choose.

"Both," she has to say, because either one could go horribly wrong.

Ty Lee's eyes light up, thrilled. "That's one of your best ideas _ever_."

And she kisses Azula on the lips. The princess wants it to linger, until she realizes how public this is, and how her father has omnipresence in this city. There is a brief fantasy contained in Azula's mind of a security camera attempting to catch her, and then with a burst of lightning, it shatters and the crumbling, melted metal somehow accented the much more passionate act.

But the kiss is sharp, quick, and Azula clears her throat and is grateful this horrid, fluorescent place seems fairly empty.

* * *

They are back in the limousine, the driver not asking questions but Azula making sure that no news will get back to her father. Finally, they are moving closer to the sector of Caldera that houses her home and those of the other elite.

You can see the palace from the buildings there, but now it is just the center of political meetings and old relics. No one lives there anymore, and it looks quite void of life despite everything being so well maintained.

Ty Lee stops the car again and Azula looks up.

"Do you like coffee?" Ty Lee asks as she has yet another stop. _This _place Azula is familiar, with, at least. "I mean, your lips taste like energy drinks a lot... or maybe sour worms, but I kind of guess energy drinks, right? I see you holding them sometimes, and well, yeah Hahn from homeroom totally just uses them to hide booze but that's not really your thing I mean woops sorry obviously you've─"

"I like coffee, Ty Lee," Azula asserts, and the cheerleader breathes a sigh of relief. "We need it for some reason involving cookie dough?"

"We need it because I'm kinda tired," Ty Lee admits openly and they walk towards the little shop.

The little, quaint coffee shop is called _Dark Toast_. Perhaps a play on dark _roast_, but Azula has never put too much thought into it. Toast has little to do with _anything_, particularly the theme of the shop itself.

Despite clearly being a Fire Nation establishment, it in explicably has a Water Tribe theme. Coffee comes from the Fire Nation and certain cultivated places in the Earth Kingdom before the revolutionary war, and it isn't as if Air Nomads have been around long enough to be remembered as anything other than moments of silence and probably inappropriate decals on fruit cakes in bright orange packages.

The whole place is _blue_, which is a color Azula does not mind, but is not exactly her thing.

Ty Lee is warring over two of what seem to be the same drink, save for one being vanilla and the other being Ba Sing Se vanilla. They are both vanilla, but Azula has her own strange sets of demands and requests. Like a refusal of any fruits with pits, and her need to solely drink room temperature water.

"I love the decorations here," Ty Lee remarks happily as she finally decides.

"You know where I should take you? This cute little place near the Beifong Hotel near the old embassies. It's always below zero temperature in there, and everything is made of ice. Even the glasses and chairs," Azula comments and Ty Lee looks at her as if she has just said something impossibly odd.

"That... isn't something I'd guess you would like," Ty Lee admits as they await their drinks.

Azula shrugs. "I don't feel the need for people to know about my interests. Unless they are or have one of my interests."

Ty Lee watches her tap her nails on the counter and can see that one is missing. Her fingernail is clipped short and very carefully smoothed, but the glue stuck to it is ridged and bright white. It is a very stark contrast to the expensive fake ones Ty Lee has not seen her without since they were about eleven.

She considers telling Azula about her lost nail, but decides against it.

"But what about someone you really like. I mean, like_like_," Ty Lee says, accepting her complex vanilla drink. Azula's simply makes the statement, _I intend to stay awake _forever_. _"Don't you want them to know you? The _real _you?"

"There's no such thing as the _real _me, Ty Lee. You ought to know that by now." She kisses her vanilla flavored lips and is unsure if it is regular vanilla or the somehow different Ba Sing Se vanilla.  
Azula, absorbed in the gorgeous girl beside her, does not notice that she was being watched.

And caught on film.

* * *

Ty Lee bursts through her family home like a charging bull, and Azula follows close behind. The princess has little time to take in her surroundings, or the fact that Ty Lee's house has an awful lot of books for someone who hates reading.

Perhaps her mother is a professor? Azula thinks she heard that somewhere, but she cannot recall the right place.

They at last reach Ty Lee's room, and Azula examines it closely. It is _pink_ of course, and has a lot of cute little cartoon characters. A lot of make-up covering almost every surface. Her bed is plush and draped with reddish silk, but it is certainly made for only one person.

Perhaps that is less lonely than being in a larger bed like Azula's.

She has a white, scuffed case with glass over it, crystal knobs and books and mementos all lined sloppily on the shelves. Azula walks towards it. Her memories of gymnastics; clearly she was talented. A _lot _of romance novels. In fact, Azula sees nothing _but _romance, but she is more surprised by the fact that Ty Lee does not hide the fact that she reads.

Maybe she does not invite as many people into her room as Azula presumed.

Ty Lee just watches and recalls how she pried in Azula's bedroom, and saw the burnt stuffed animal. Saw that there were no pictures of her family except for her. Ty Lee is always with someone in every single photograph.

"Did you ever have a nanny?" Ty Lee asks, hoping the question does not offend. She throws the grocery bag on the floor, and just sets her mostly empty coffee concoction on her make-up stained desk.

"Perhaps white is not the best color for your bedroom," Azula says as she looks around. She does decide to answer the question, as it cannot ht. "I had two awful nannies that stuck. Lo and Li. I never liked them much, and I have never allowed anyone to be maternal towards me."

Ty Lee smiles faintly. She knows nothing about the death of Azula's mother ─ or about as much as anyone outside of she, her brother and her father know.

"I'm not sure how sexily I can eat this cookie dough," Ty Lee says, grinning and changing the subject. "It's way less sexier than ring-pops."

Azula gladly welcomes the shift in conversation.

* * *

They watch a unsurprisingly awful movie. Azula gazes at it and scratches the side of her nose as she lies back against the wall. Ty Lee has so many posters. There are bands, beautiful women, movies, those teenage heartthrobs. Pictures from places she traveled.

Azula does not like to be in any space that does not smell like clean linen air freshener, and does not all match perfectly with clean, crisp and untouched decor, but being in this room feels like being let into Ty Lee somehow.

It is a gesture that Azula can never turn, but appreciates nonetheless.

"You have had any of this," Ty Lee whines with her mouth full. Azula just shrugs.

"I had a bite, and I can already feel the salmonella coming over me." Azula turns her nose a bit towards the ceiling and Ty Lee wonders if she is being facetious or is honestly afraid of cookie dough.

Then again, somehow this girl has never been into a grocery store. And is expected to one day rule an empire. It makes Ty Lee a bit nervous, but, on the other hand, she finds it all cute. The way Azula is, even if it probably is not healthy or wise or as attractive and romantic as Ty Lee thinks, is so appealing.

"It's weird how my worst enemy could turn into this," Ty Lee remarks and Azula loses what little interest she had in the film.

"This what?" Azula asks, wringing her soft hands.

"A relationship like this. I used to avoid you as much as I could, but now being around you makes me feel _amazing_," Ty Lee says before wrapping up the remainder of her dessert and setting it down on her bedside table.

She does not let Azula fully process how this relationship is not good, and how it will not end well.

How Azula is forbidden from any romantic or sexual contact, even with someone she genuinely cares about like Ty Lee. What happened last time, cannot happen again.

_She wants to do this. Yes, she wants to do this. And she is going to because she is free and he can go fuck himself and Azula is her own person and she is on _fire _right now. She can't remember exactly what she has taken as she wonders when searching for control turned in to losing control._

_ Azula is enjoying herself as she falls against the mattress, her back hitting the twin bed and she lets the strange brunette roll up the bottom of her shirt._

_"Who is she? Who is who you want me to be?" whispers the girl Azula just found at a party and said a few words to claim her._

_ "Do I look like I have a _she_?" Azula purrs as she kisses her again and tugs her closer._

Ty Lee is now on top of Azula, straddling her and eagerly undoing her own shirt. This is just inspired and marvelous. But Azula is only capable of thinking about her father sending soldiers after her, and instead of just dragging her home after she ran away, doing so much worse than that.

Azula does not mind violence, is not unnerved by things that most people are. She consumes horror movies and the grotesque with an impassive attitude and occasional arousal.

But she will really never forget the blood streaked on that wooden floor.

"What is it?" Ty Lee asks, and Azula is ripped from her reverie when the pleasurable friction is taken from her.

"I'm only thinking. I always am," Azula says as she sets her hands on Ty Lee's waist.

This cheerleader was meant to be expendable.

Oh but she isn't. And Azula does not know how she will ever explain that this will not go in the way Ty Lee expects.

"Only think about me. Just this once," Ty Lee pleads sweetly and Azula gladly obeys.

* * *

In the morning, Azula wakes up feeling wonderful. The remainder of her evening with Ty Lee had been extremely pleasant. They are entangled, and Ty Lee has bounced up right as Azula opens her eyes.

"My mom always gets donuts and like muffins when we have sleepovers here if you want them," Ty Lee offers happily and Azula sits up slowly.

"I don't think I will have one, but I wouldn't mind meeting your family," Azula says, and she tries to make herself look like the girl they watch on television before walking down the stairs with Ty Lee.

The cheerleader grabs the box before realizing what a horrible host she is.

"Okay, almost all of them are gone. We have to hide them," Ty Lee says before going to examine the coffee pot with the box of pastries under her arm for safety. Azula smiles faintly at the display. "There's coffee, and water or whatever you want."

Azula sits down with iced tea, and watches Ty Lee's attempts to look pretty while eating.

Despite Azula knowing she is not supposed to eat things like that, she reaches forward and rips off a piece of Ty Lee's muffin. It tastes very good. Today is... interesting. Ty Lee has the impulse to fight for it, but she just hands a new one to Azula.

The princess stares at it for a moment before accepting the gesture.


	10. Chapter 10

_**AN: **__This has some sexiness, but I intend to keep it T. If it's too much, of course, I'll bump the rating up or water down the scenes. Also, I do not condone any behavior of horrible Fire Nation Teen!Jerks, but this does not take itself very seriously and there is no way that this could be centered around Azula and Ty Lee and not be in the __90210__ and __Gossip Girl__ genre._

* * *

Azula asks to stay another night after calling her father and fabricating sweet, pretty lies, and Ty Lee could not be more thrilled. It is so exciting to see Azula behave more and more like Ty Lee did when she had the summer make-over that fixed her life.

Of course, the princess has extremely ulterior motives. But Ty Lee forces herself not to notice, because it means she has even more time to make progress with Azula.

They start their day by losing Azula's guard. It is daring, it is awful, and it certainly goes against the entire reason that Azula came here. After trying a _donut_, however, Azula is feeling like a the ultimate rebel. She wants to push it, as bad as that is.

The two of them walk to a playground, and Azula sits on a swing and allows Ty Lee to have the privilege of pushing her before it gets too boring, and Ty Lee suggests that they go to the mall near the political side of Caldera.

It brushes a little too close to where people recognize Azula, but she thinks she can manage just fine. It isn't as if her father is going to be walking around in Hanatani's.

Azula and Ty Lee walk into the beautiful, gold tinted store that would be a tacky mall if it were not so expensive and pointedly classy. There is not a hanger out of place, and every designer imaginable is there, from nation to nation.

But the main entrance of the _department store _is so much more dull than the niche mall filled with curios that are not meant to be accessed unless people let you in.

"There's a reason I wanted to bring you here instead of somewhere further away from your dad," Ty Lee whispers as she takes Azula's hand in hers. The cheerleader feels relieved that the princess's hands are just as sweaty as hers.

"Oh yes?" Azula purrs, and Ty Lee nods with a mischievous grin.

They walk discretely through the store before reaching what Azula always presumed was a dressing room. She never went there, but there are a few bored security guards. Ty Lee says a couple of words that Azula does not understand, and then she is being tugged into a different place altogether.

It is kind of... breathtaking, if you really think about it.

The gorgeous flames burning in different colors. Shops that have smooth and classic displays. It looks like the type of place that people are not supposed to know about for _very _good reason.

"I want to show you to just _one place_, okay?" Ty Lee says, grabbing Azula before seeing the princess's eyes flash. Ty Lee drops her and smiles innocently before gesturing with a pleading bat of her eyelashes.

Azula complies now that Ty Lee is behaving more compliantly and they walk through the perfumed block of Fire Nation stores. Not the dominating chains. Pure Fire Nation, to the very core.

To Azula's... uncertain set of emotions, Ty Lee has led her into a store with a _lot _of lace in it. And many bras of designs that the princess will not admit that she has never seen. Ty Lee is smiling as she begins to walk around.

"So, lingerie and overpriced and inexplicable items of a sexual nature?" Ty Lee says in a tone Azula is slightly alarmed by.

But the princess refuses to look weak or lesser to Ty Lee, and so she nods and pretends to be leading despite the fact that she is following.

* * *

They hide the _much _too clearly labelled shopping bags within ones of more appropriate items, and Azula is trying so hard not to smile. She does not know why _defiance _makes her so happy, because it should not. Even in her darkest hours, Azula has been the perfect daughter and the perfect politician.

Ty Lee is bad for her, and Azula knows it. But it feels _so good to be bad._

Azula doesn't know why. She doesn't know why she gets a thrill whenever she feels the silky bags hitting against her bare knees. Or why she likes Ty Lee so much despite how little she can help Azula ascend the social or political ladders.

It is some sickness Azula is... afraid to investigate.

* * *

Mai gets a phone call that she refuses to answer.

Mai gets a phone call that she answers, gives a very fake cough, and says she is sick.

Mai gets a phone call that she answers, listens, and then hangs up.

Mai gets a phone call that she answers, and then explains that she is not going to be an accomplice to the alleged kidnapping of Princess Azula.

Mai gets a phone call that she refuses to answer.

Mai gets a phone call that she refuses to answer.

Mai gets a phone call that she answers and groans, "_Fine_. Just stop calling me. I'm coming."

* * *

Oh every spirit, the princess's best friend wishes she had been more steely than that.

Mai wishes she had not decided to offer Azula's crazy-as-fuck girlfriend a ride with Azula through the city, risking her own skin for the soft, smooth skin Azula seems so intent

_Okay, okay_, Mai admits that a lot of it is because she is genuinely worried about Azula. She has seen firsthand that the perfect princess is really not so perfect, and can get very hurt. And Ty Lee brings out the self-destructive side of Azula that Mai knows can be an all consuming fire.

So, Mai agrees because she thinks Azula needs her protection.

It will not end well, and Mai does not know why she keeps sticking around to pick up the pieces of Azula. Sticking around to be her mom without Azula noticing it. It's horrible, and not the type of person Mai ever imagined herself being.

They have spent a thousand years in this make-up store, and while Mai does not find it _awful_, she does hate the sideways glances. There are two kinds of dressing darkly and playing up the cold Fire Nation features; to get as much attention as possible, or to avoid as much as possible.

_One _guess which Mai is. She does not like being looked at. Not out of insecurity ─ she knows no one has ever crossed her or even mocked her to her face once in her life. And she is not _shy_. It is actually inexplicable; it's probably something to do with her parents viciously encouraging her to be noticed with Azula at all times, to the point that Mai decided to try to become a ghost instead.

"You're perfect in all of them. You're so perfect, I just can't stop," continues Ty Lee as Mai rolls her eyes and looks at another shade of identical nude eyeshadow.

"I know," Azula replies again, not altering her tone or sounding flattered in the slightest.

She sounds like she just got told that it's a bit chilly outside. That is why Mai does not bother. Shared misery and coldness are the foundations of their relationship, not whatever Ty Lee is trying. Whatever Azula is somehow _biting._

Mai has a realization when she rolls up a skin tone lipstick that has probably been fashionably outdated for forty years. Ty Lee is not so enticing and absorbing to Azula because she's hot or _fun_. She is _enticing _because she represents what Azula wants. She's projected selfish desires because _of course_.

And Ty Lee's gushing has nothing to do with overwhelming hormones and first love.

She wants to _fix _the girl who used to hurt her.

Mai wonders briefly if she should bring that up, or do something about it, but it will crash and burn eventually, and they will learn. So she buys the same make-up she has worn since she was fourteen, and sighs and clears her throat very pointedly until Azula forces Ty Lee to leave the store.

They are in the fashion district of Caldera that is quite exclusively for wealthy inhabitants and the tourists with cash, or tourists with no cash who want to stare intently. Ty Lee has shopped here, _of course_, once she had her make-over that fixed every problem in her life.

But before then, she stuck up her nose at it and only wore sweaters from the isles or the Earth Kingdom, or bastardized Water Tribe betrothal necklaces. Definitely some factory boots that slowly weaned out of real style after covering up any signs of Sozin's war became en vogue.

When they walk into one of the stores Azula does briefly note how ignored she is, but she has never been shopping or... _anywhere _in her life without a strict armed guard. The strict armed guard that think she is still in Ty Lee's home, and Azula feels queasy every time she remembers that they are relying on strangers to protect them.

And _Mai _keeps giving her _that _look about it.

They walk up the stairs, Ty Lee excitedly shuffling through clothes. Azula examines them.

"How will I explain this to my father?" Azula asks quietly, cocking an eyebrow at Mai.

And Mai shakes her head. "I'm not helping you."

"Yes, you are. We will go _shopping _this afternoon after you pick me up with my guard alongside us. They don't bother to _check _all I buy. No one will know the wiser."

"You want my money too, don't you?" Mai says, sighing.

"Yes."

"Mmm. Okay." Mai just sighs. It isn't as if her parents will notice. Actually, they might commend her somehow. Buy her a cake.

It takes all of ten minutes for Azula and Ty Lee to be laughing in a dressing room.

Mai does not think she has ever heard Azula make _those _noises before, and it is more disturbing than any of her drunken slurs or breathless phone calls or political grandeur. It is what it would sound like if Azula could _giggle_.

Ew. Just, ugh.

And then Mai sees the woman who keeps ignoring them ─ to all of their relief ─ striding towards the dressing room.

"They're not having sex in there," Mai says without thinking. And the woman swivels to face the girl she has been eyeing to make sure doesn't _shoplift_. "Probably."

"That isn't what I'm concerned about," slowly says the slender woman in the ugliest shade of orange Mai has ever seen.

And then Mai sighs. "Give me two minutes. Please. I'll buy whatever gives you the most fucking comission. I won't apologize for my foul language in your stupid store. It smells weird in here and is too cold."

Mai walks to the light red door and knocks on it with her knuckles. "So, I think you're going to get arrested. Just like I said. I said; you're going to get recognized here, and either returned home, or you're going to get arrested and have to get picked up, and that's why I said this was a horrible idea."

Azula is silent as Ty Lee tries to catch her breath, making wheezing sounds.

"Mai, you are not supposed to allow that type of thing to happen."

"I can't believe I'm an accomplice again."

"You chose to come."

"You asked me to come."

"Just buy something and shut them up."

"I'm doing that already, but I don't know if it's going to work. You could've played it coy. You could've just stuck to the mall."

"Tell them I'm naked."

Mai shrugs. That _has _worked before when Azula has demanded they occasionally toe the line. Which was rare before she decided to get an _insane _girlfriend who wanted Azula to become some kind of party girl. And that Azula did not just scoff in her face a or stomp her heel onto her neck. Figuratively.

And so Mai goes to pay at the counter. "They're not dressed yet. There are lots of reasons to hate people like them. Teenagers in dressing rooms. Girls like that. They're awful. I agree. But what would it take for me to make you look the other direction."

The very, deplorably prim woman feebly trying to hide her strong Earth Kingdom features and overcompensate with strong perfume stares Mai down as she waits patiently for the transaction to go through. Mai stares at the stack of lace dresses and shoes. The things Mai does for this horrible girl.

"Are you trying to bribe me, young lady."

"Yes," Mai says curtly, not bothering with how serpentine her parents act when they do it.

The woman's shock works quite well, and Mai's eyes flick over to see Azula and Ty Lee escaping in silence. That silence only achieved by Azula with her hand tightly over Ty Lee's mouth.

"No."

"Wow, I am so impressed by the morals of your second rate designer clothing store. Just give me my bags."

Mai rolls her eyes.

* * *

Azula is standing on the street, trying not to pace or draw attention to herself. And Ty Lee looks like a puppy-mouse that just tore up its owner's sofa. Mai walks out of the store onto the hot and steamy street and just stares for a moment.

"That was dangerous," Mai says as she thrusts the ugly clothes into Ty Lee's hands. "You look like you would like this stuff I had to buy. Don't look so happy. You're paying me back for them."

Ty Lee looks to Azula for defense and the princess says nothing. Azula does look quietly and coldly displeased. Okay, Ty Lee notices, _displeased _is a _huge _understatement. Princess Azula has a placid expression but eyes that could start a genocide.

"Take me back to your home," Azula orders brusquely and Ty Lee nods, batting her eyelashes sweetly. The princess is entirely unmoved by it and Mai feels silently victorious.

_Thank the spirits_.

"I don't think you understand just what my father would do if he found out I was in the city alone."

Ty Lee lightly protests, "You weren't alo─"

"Shut up." Azula refuses to say another word. She will not waste her breath.

Ty Lee has this wash of... _guilt_. And, to her anger at both herself and everyone she knows, it isn't guilt about pushing Azula too hard. It is guilt about letting _herself _go so far with Azula and letting _herself _get hurt.

The silence is physically painful to Ty Lee. She has felt that before, when trying to rekindle relationships with more awkward friends from her past, before becoming a social butterfly. But the only one who joined her was Suki, and they had known each other for so long that it was easy.

This silence, however, Ty Lee could not interrupt and redirect where she wanted it to go.

They get back to Ty Lee's house, slipping around the back without anyone noticing for a second. Mai waits to see if Azula will want to leave or not, hoping Azula does.

The two dating girls look at each other.

"I didn't want to hurt you. I wanted to... have fun. But, of course," Ty Lee stammers, "couples shouldn't just do what one person likes. We don't do what you like nearly enough. And I, Azula, I would way rather do what you like and be the person you want to be than the other way around."

"I'm aware," Azula says calmly, because _of course _she already knows that. It has been evident for a _long _time that Ty Lee is the kind of person who puts another person's desires before her own, even if it hurts herself. "I should have known better, in this case, admittedly. Yes, you behave erratically and far to immaturely for someone your age and with your status."

_And with no future_, Azula adds mentally.

"I..." Ty Lee disagrees, but keeps her lips zipped.

"I'm hiding from my father. That's why I asked to stay another night. That's why I came home with you. You interrupted us at a very opportune time. I am certain he was as grateful as me to avoid the conversation, but anything that could add to it is... not in my best interest."

"Oh, I thought, you, just... wanted to spend time with me."

Azula shrugs. "I don't mind that. But I will stay with you as planned, unless anything else goes wrong because of your immaturity."

Ty Lee nods, unable to say anything else.

Princess Azula walks to Mai to tell her she can leave.

But Mai speaks first, much to Azula's anger. "Do you not think that a girlfriend who wants you to impulsively live it up is bad for you?"

"No."

"She's obsessed with _fixing you_, Azula. That's disturbing. And her impulses are _crazy_."

"Maybe I have desires with her. Maybe I know that."

"Maybe she brings out the self-destructive side of you."

Azula clearly knows that is true, because she states, "You can leave."

Mai doesn't protest, because Azula can get locked in the Boiling Rock at his point for all she cares. She may be very close to Azula. _Very _close, but she isn't close enough to cross that limit.

* * *

Azula is detached that afternoon and evening, and Ty Lee cannot tell if that is some kind of punishment, or if she is still reeling from the fact that she could have faced punishment. But by nighttime, the room dark but the lights of the cars and city illuminating it with dancing shadows, she seems a little more... open.

Ty Lee sits on the bed, mostly in her pajamas, her braid undone and her hair cascading over her. Azula examines their shopping bags.

"This feels ridiculous," Azula says softly as she examines what is in the over the top shopping bag. It seems so _desperate _to cater to the wealthy of Caldera, but Azula... had no idea about... _well_, no idea about any of this.

She finds that she hates being the uneducated one about anything with Ty Lee. It frustrates her, to say the least.

"If you don't like it, we really ─"

"I know that," Azula says and her tone is tender enough that it doesn't hurt Ty Lee. "But I'm not used to... this. I've... I wasn't a... I had sex before I was with you."

"I realized," Ty Lee says with a smile. She had boy sex. With her boyfriend.

And she...

She takes a sharp breath that she thinks Azula does not notice, but the princess does. Ty Lee, unbeknownst to Azula, kind of kissed her ex-boyfriend super hard in the face after Azula rejected her during the party. It didn't get far. It really didn't.

But it didn't because of _him_ reminding her that she had somebody else in her life and that revenge wasn't a good reason.

Not because of _her _being a decent person.

That hurts so much when she is sober and in love with Azula.

"What is _this_?" Azula asks, picking up the only sexual object in there that interests her other than satin and lace.

"Oh, it's really weird and cool," Ty Lee says, her eyes lighting up like diamonds. She leaps to her feet and screws open the cap. "Massage oil, right? Right? But, there's _gold _in it."

Azula can only be reminded of the time that her mother was forbidden by her father to take she and Zuko to this restaurant that served food with gold flakes in it. She didn't listen, and Uncle took them instead, of course. Grandfather was still Fire Lord at the time, so father did not have the power he did later.

All the same, it was...

It might have been Azula who poisoned any happy memories they would have had by telling on them.

But that is behind her, and she is kind of enticed by the absurdity of this purchase. Azula has bought frivolous things due to it being one of her only freedoms. Anything that did not detract from her bending and was not undignified was fair game, and she had a lot of fun getting the most useless of baubles from her father.

It was a small freedom. But that was enough for her.

"I think that's a little... I'll bite," Azula says before realizing the exact implications of _bite_.

But Ty Lee grins in response to that, not at all put off. How could she be?

"I happen to be very good at things like massages..." Ty Lee says, with a knowing glint in her eyes.

Azula knows she is being honest about that but does not quite know what to make of that. In fact, she is not sure if she wants that done to her, but it is not as if Azula wants to do it the other way around either.

_Why _is this _so _complicated?

"Are we going to be overheard or perhaps recorded and put in every tabloid and I will never become Fire Lord because I have some form of sex tape?" Azula never thought she, nor _anyone actually_, would ever say those words.

"No. My basement might as well be a bomb shelter. I swear. And nobody here knows I'm dating you. For all they know we're watching some kind of really dirty spy movie. Would you like me to put one on?"

Azula no longer has any responses tonight. She thinks her intelligent and once infinite well of witty replies has run dry as she toys with her own camisole straps.

"Fine," Azula says as smoothly as she can, and Ty Lee smiles again, as if this is so exciting.

It begins with a kiss, because Ty Lee has been pushed off of things before due to Azula not quite knowing how all of this works. Azula has to have control, and she has had that over her former partners, at least until everything began to crumble around her like the walls of Ba Sing Se.

So the kiss turns into the kneading of her pretty tits, and Ty Lee is very slow, not allowing herself to be too intimidated.

And so the princess is painted with gold, delicate hands that would be broken to bits if anyone saw this, which makes her heart start pounding every once in a while.

Ty Lee tries to ignore that, to kiss her, to make her realize that, in Ty Lee's eyes, Azula glitters, shines and glows much, much more than overpriced sexy massage oil.

Even if she is a bit disappointed that Azula's spine doesn't light up red.

* * *

_**AN: **__I have a quick question:_

_Does Ty Lee have a campy party girl Ferris Bueller vibe or is she teetering towards a manic pixie vibe? Actually, she doesn't have to have that original intent; I mostly want it to be clear that how she behaves is really not romantic or a good thing, even if it seems that way to her and Azula, and for those behaviors not to seem really idealized or cute or healthy. Does she seem idealized like the manic pixie? I'm a little afraid she might be starting to lean towards that disgusting kind of girl.  
_


	11. Chapter 11

While on Saturday, Azula ate a _pastry _and _laughed_, on Sunday, she leaves once the sun rises.

Ty Lee thinks Azula is just concerned about her dad, and about her schoolwork, and million extracurriculars. It is understandable, even if Ty Lee wished for a kiss goodbye and a reassurance that their romance is still in progress.

Princess Azula only stops on the way home to cover her tracks by going on an agonizing shopping trip, and to examine herself better to make sure she has no traces of guilt on her. To make sure she does not look like the kind of person who disappoints her father. Tomorrow, she will return to the daily routine that exhausts her in the best of ways.

Constant distraction is for the best. Constant focus on the crown is important.

Even though being enamored with the life that her secret girlfriend lives is becoming more and more overpowering as days go by. Azula has been carefully directed on the right path, but Ty Lee has grown up like a grapevine and the princess wants to follow all of those twists.

But she arrives in her home and feels a sense of relief. The weekend was being suspended in the air like in a cartoon, trying not to look down so that she would not fall back into reality. Her father is inside, about to leave, and she hates how she wishes that she had just missed him.

There is still a small gold sheen on her skin. He would have no reason to suspect that, though, because he looks at her when she walks in like she is something so beautiful, and Azula has, for her entire life, felt like she deserves those looks from everyone who sees her, but she feels something biting and ripping at the inside of her chest when she sees that.

It is the boiling blood of betrayal, but not of being betrayed. Betraying someone else, which Azula has never considered herself to have done, but no one has been her peer, no one has been worthy of her fealty before.

Father is.

_You've been here before, you've walked in like this and felt just like this, except he could look right through you, _Azula thinks, but he just finishes adjusting his sleeve.

"You have school tomorrow. Be there on time, and keep up appearances," he says, and he leaves without another word.

She agrees with him, and she mostly agrees with having perhaps dodged the uncomfortable conversation. It is not, she realizes, the kind of person she wants to be. The kind of person who is so frightened of a discussion with a person that she would do all of _that_.

But, she realizes as she escapes to the shower as quickly as she can, it isn't a discussion with a person. It is a matter of how disappointed she knows her father would be in her, and how much she knows that, even if she has no problem with lying like a rug, she knows that this fantasy is not built to last.

Azula just counts all of the essays she will have to pound out today, and tries not to think about how much she wishes her father could understand, but how _absurd _that would be. He could not understand... anything. Just _anything_, that man. Azula loves him. Azula loves him and she loves her future more than the thrill that love and maybe experiencing a little bit of adolescence before ascendancy.

The steam and storm of hot water feels nice against her, and so she does not speed the gold that sheds from her skin and swirls down the drain.

In time she will sever her ties, but she has every right to live for a couple of months before she resigns herself to the crown.

Doesn't she?

* * *

Monday goes well enough. Azula and Ty Lee go through sweet motions of a semi-secret couple, and no one is bothered. Ty Lee talks at great lengths about reality television shows that Azula secretly reads about online on her phone, just out of sight, in order to pretend that she watches them.

Things continue smoothly, particularly when Azula is separated into the impossible classes that she impossibly aces, and Ty Lee goes to classes that she could not fail no matter what she did.

As time passes, the day is yielding promising results and Azula is satisfied, despite the moderate effort it takes to be nice and maintain conversation with Ty Lee. And the avoidance of Mai and Azula's concerned teachers that requires.

At last, with only forty-five minutes left, their chemistry lab is together, the one in which Ty Lee has set her hair on fire in twice. Which is how she got partnered with Azula. Which is why this deplorably boring class is one of Azula's favorites.

The two of them talk as Azula does the work without paying it any mind. It doesn't matter if it turns out well or not, even if she does follow the instructions perfectly and to the letter; she _is _the princess, even if she is a teenager trying to subtly hide a rolled up plaid skirt with a phone tucked into it.

They finish their work early and Azula's plans are about to go off without a hitch as they escape to one of the parlors down the hallowed halls of Sozin High. The two of them sit close on antique furniture, and Azula wonders how long she can keep pretending to ignore Ty Lee's leg creeping up on her.

Almost perfect. The day is almost perfect, and perhaps this awful ride is over.

Until they are standing in the crowded, loud hall, at the end of the day.

"You've been talking a lot and uh..." Ty Lee grimaces and rubs her forehead furiously. "I'm just worried. Are you worried? Are you gonna break up with me and that's why you're being so nice today and not as princess as usual?"

Azula studies her for a moment. "No. I am just trying to ease us over this rough patch. It would have been better if you didn't comment on it."

"Why can't we just tell people?" Ty Lee blurts out and then creepily nice Azula is gone in a flash, replaced by cold killbot Azula.

"We have been through this. It would be catastrophic, and all of our problems relate to you and your pointless obsession with me revealing our relationship. Do you just want to leech off of my fame?" Azula snaps and Ty Lee can feel cold venom in her veins.

She breathes in, though and tries to be brave. She tries to give a reason why it's not a _pointless _obsession and comes up short. And so she just throws it out there.

"But if people did know that you were dating somebody, would it really be so bad?" Ty Lee whispers, giving Azula the best smile she can muster.

"Yes," Azula says coldly and Ty Lee clenches a fist. "I have no permission to be with anyone I am not serious about ruling a country with. Or at least being seen at a political event with."

Ty Lee's lips open without her consent, uncertain if she really heard that or just imagined it. Azula does not seem bothered at all by what she said, as if it were just _given_, as if Ty Lee had known.

"You seemed like you were planning on telling people eventually," Ty Lee says even though she knows she is just lighting more matches.

Azula takes a slow, deep breath. She hates honesty; it has never done anyone any good.

"I would have been, if I were planning on _marrying _you. Which is, I mean, I'm sure you can't even say that with a straight face." Azula smirks and begins to laugh before her socially appropriate mirth disappears. Ty Lee's eyes are sparkling brighter than the gold on her skin, with the clear tears of some kind of _sadness_. "Did you think we... would? You're ─ I mean ─ the reason I'm with you is because you're so flighty and reckless and shallow that I never thought you took this very..."

No, nope, that is not getting Azula anywhere good.

Ty Lee runs. Runs and cries. Azula did not imagine that the happy person who embodied the carefree joy that was so unattainable to herself would even be _able _to do that. The princess knows she should just turn away, but her body, her mind, her soul, _everything _compels her to follow that girl.

She does it. Azula _really does_. She instantly moves to follow her out the door, arm first, then walking a few steps, before she is taken back quite gently by an invisible force that she would like to blame for everything. The ghost that reminds her who she really is.

Azula waits for a little too long, gets gawked at, expecting Ty Lee to come back.

But the princess just sighs, makes mental note to come up with a way to beautifully express the fact that their relationship is an important and special affair, but is a high school fling and should be treated as such. Ty Lee just must not _understand _dating a princess.

Ty Lee just not must not _understand _dating a girl who has gotten people killed before by loving them.

* * *

Ty Lee stands outside in the parking lot, too afraid to go back in and be seen crying like this. She sniffles, she rubs snot on her bare arm and doesn't think twice about it. Her reputation would be destroyed by this, and she feels _so frustrated_.

The fact of that matter is that she _does _understand, and that she _does _know that Azula is not like the people Ty Lee has loved before, in the fact that she is supposed to rule an empire one day. And Ty Lee did see the human look in her eyes when she saw that she had hurt her, Ty Lee saw that _hurting _Ty Lee was an accident even if Azula did not see anything wrong with what she said.

But it does not make the sting of that rejection feel any better at all.

She looks up and sees Azula walks across the parking lot in the other direction. Quick test. Azula's reaction. Maybe she will notice. The princess does see, and she stares with her eyes a little wider than usual, and then she averts her gaze.

Ty Lee thinks that might mean something. But it doesn't dry the tears. Azula very awkwardly waves, then realizes that was the wrong thing to do, and runs before slowing down and trying to look like she was not running away.

"What happened?" asks Suki and Ty Lee frowns at her feet. She feels guilty for neglecting her friend. "You two have been pretty on the rocks lately."

"I know." Homecoming's aftershocks just don't seem to stop. _No_, that sleepover at Azula's house, that dinner with her father, was the earthquake that started these endless, jarring and painful ripples. "I think she loves me. Right? She waved. She had _red _cheeks."

Suki wrings her hands for a minute. She is in love with the idea of you, Suki wants to say. But Ty Lee is also in love with the idea of Azula, and so it would get her nowhere by pointing that out.

They both need to see it for themselves.

It is an awful thing to make a person into nothing more than an idea.

And an idea can't help you dry your tears and talk you through a public rejection like a friend can. Suki rummages in her bag and pulls out a pack of tissues.

"Start talking," she says with a warm but fierce command.

Ty Lee nods as her lip trembles.

* * *

Azula leaves school, trying her best to numb herself from _that _debacle and come up with the right words to repair her relationship by tomorrow. But those goals disappear when she comes home to the strangest scene she can possibly imagine. If she returned home to an entire circus it would not be as strange, or to the scene of a triple murder, or if a menagerie had taken up residence.

Strangely enough, her father is home. Her father is home waiting for her, in that way that one waits for their cheating spouse in the movies. Which is bad, which is very bad, which is very, very, very, very, very, very bad. Which is so bad that there is not a single elevated and lofty word that can express the word under than the thousand intensifying _very_s accompanied by worsening possible images in Azula's mind.

"I would like you to see something that was confiscated from a magazine office," he says and Azula can't think of anything she has done. No, nothing public. "It's very interesting."

Azula tries to look innocent, because she thinks she is. At least for now.

She drops her bag onto the floor with no care for the contents, and walks to sit on the floor in front of the coffee table.

Oh. That is bad. That is very bad. That is more _verys _of bad than Azula can count.


	12. Chapter 12

Evidence.

Photographic evidence is something Azula and Ty Lee have always had very little of, but Ty Lee understood _that _of course. It was not just _their relationship_; Azula in general avoided being caught on camera without the scene being carefully staged.

Evidence, though, is their mutual best memory of each other, even though they might not get around to talking about it.

The restaurant they were in was not fancy, or very fun or interesting. In fact, it was tacky, and the walls were a weird pink that clashed with the floor. Mismatched Water Tribe paintings tried to cover up the renovations that were underway, but it was very clearly a work in progress with typos on the paper menus and a drink machine that possibly predated peace.

It was called _Sushi King_, and now it serves a much higher form of clientele. Azula's hiding place was ruined, because Ty Lee was so in love with the restaurant that she wanted to _help make it shine_ with the connections, with the _name_, with all of her rich little friends who made her pretty and who made Azula date her in the first place.

There is now no evidence of a restaurant called _Sushi King _with paper menus, plastic chairs and an ugly carpet. But Azula did allow a single video to be saved, solely for preserving the _history_. Maybe because she did like it.

Ty Lee is watching it, with no knowledge of Azula and her facing a more sinister kind of documentation. It's a very poor quality video taken on her phone, with only a few copies made of it, and the entire beginning makes Ty Lee laugh at the jokes nobody would ever get or make sense of.

_"No, no, just carry _me_," the recording of Princess Azula demands, and Ty Lee does agree to that. _

_ Well, Ty Lee can pick her up, because the reason they are taking the video is due to the increasingly _tense _bets they are taking with some random teenagers who Ty Lee and Azula certainly would not usually interact with. This is one of the tamer ones._

Fast forward. Yeah, it's interesting, but Ty Lee is not all that interested.

_The obnoxious music in the _definitely _predating peace, and possibly predating the war jukebox has finally ended, because those obnoxious teenagers have left too._

_ "Are you still recording this?" Ty Lee asks, and she looks very cute and confused. Except her make-up is such a mess and her eyelashes are basically nonexistent, but that doesn't really matter._

_ "Yes."_

_ "I really like this song."_

_ "Yes. It is in much better taste than what was playing before."_

_ "I really like you."_

_ "Yes. You have much better taste than I thought you did."_

_ "You're really full of yourself."_

_ "I have no reason not to be."_

Fast forward. She's awful. She's awful and Ty Lee does not know why she even puts up with it.

Ty Lee stops because it is almost over, and there is just this rather haunting image of them, from a camera birthday present left on one of the ugly tables, recording two girls slow dancing. The perfect, robot hands with those fake nails are on top of the glistening sweat and pink spaghetti straps, but they might as well be in a movie.

The recording runs out of space. It ends and Ty Lee does remember the rest of the night, at least mostly. That was before everything got out of hand, and Ty Lee became so fixated on liberating Azula from her chrome cage.

They were slow dancing at Sushi King, and that is what really matters.

Ty Lee tries to find something more interesting. Rewinds, looks for a chunk of conversation. She lands on something more incidental, a little boring.

_"No, I remember when I first noticed you," Ty Lee says before laughing. Those kids are watching, seeming genuinely interested. Azula is pretending not to be, but even through the rather fuzzy picture it is very clear that she is. "It was before you were so mean to me."_

_ "Before I pushed you off of those swings." Azula toys with the straw between her fingers and Ty Lee watches it on her lips for a second with a small smile.  
_

_ "You pushed me off of the jungle gym first," Ty Lee corrects with a strong memory of the pain in her knees. She was a show off, yes, but so was Azula, and Ty Lee did not break her arm when she raised her hand in class.  
_

_ "Hm. Maybe. Continue." Azula leans back and her cold indifference makes Ty Lee want to heat her up.  
_

_ "Anyway, it was when we went to that girl..." Ty Lee squints and tries to remember the faces other than Azula's and the freaky one in the mirror at that sleepover party. She can't. "Oh, Agni I forget who she even was, didn't she move to Ba Sing Se or somewhere? Oh, anyway, her sleepover, and we were talking about scary stories or something and you scared everyone of course because that was funny to you or something."_

_ "I don't remember most of those." Azula shrugs and her straw is now rendered useless by her fingertips and teeth.  
_

_ "It wasn't the urban legends though. It was when we were talking about that actual killer in the downtown, and you knew all about it. The killer thought he'd get away with it because he burned down the house but they found out it was murder because there wasn't any smoke in the dead guy's lungs."_

_ "That's an urban legend. Or did that actually happen? I don't remember." Oh, but she must._

Ty Lee should not be watching this. She should not be obsessing over this when Azula is not even responding to her.

This is a futile waste of time.

She should stop thinking about arson and jukeboxes and slow dancing at Sushi King and start thinking about things that aren't doomed from the start.

* * *

Azula looks at the photograph, and then at her father, and then at the photograph, and then at her father. She has no words, and it would be so much easier if he were looking at a video of her at Sushi King and not her kissing this girl.

She feels quite dizzy. The memories hit her, so hard, the memories of how she somehow managed to screw up in his eyes.

"Well, I don't see any problem," she says and he patiently awaits her inevitable crumbling. "This is me and my very touchy and overtly sexual friend. She's playful like that, and it is only good that this photograph was caught before it hit the press."

He does not seem to believe her. Because of things Azula should not think about. Because of executions and commitment issues and orange sweaters.

"That's not platonic."

"That's how girls touch each other. Who are friends. She is so clearly straight. Just because I am not doesn't mean that every other girl..." Azula stops and rethinks her words. "I don't understand why this matters. I'm doing fine and haven't gotten in any trouble. It isn't anything like before, and it isn't anything like her. Look at those teen actors on the television all the time. People just like to watch them and gossip."

"This isn't the same," Ozai says coldly. "Even if I were not concerned about you, it isn't the same. There are people who want to see this in a political way."

"Yes. A single picture of a teenage couple in a grocery store. It will overthrow an empire that has ruled for thousands of years. This is personal and you know it."

"I have to think about this," he says with a very false objectivity. Azula bites the inside of her mouth, all of her muscles tensing.

"You haven't been sitting here thinking about it this whole time? I'm startled you don't have my bags packed and an alibi or three already."

"This isn't a public humiliation like last time. It's personal and delicate and I would like to speak to both you and your... platonic friend. I clearly was not properly introduced last time. Invite her to dinner."

Azula could laugh about how this is just what Ty Lee asked for, or she could faint.

The latter is seeming more likely.


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: **This chapter has officially bumped this fic up to M. The past stuff (like massage oil haha) has been too much to remain at T. I like the freedom M offers too.

* * *

Ty Lee finds the message on her phone and feels thrilled before feeling guilty about feeling thrilled. She begins to get dressed, taking a painstaking amount of time with her appearance. Glimmering golden eye shadow, the perfect outfit, struggling angrily about how her teeth are not white enough.

Azula wants to meet her. Azula's message _kind of _sounded apologetic.

Ty Lee really hopes she is going to get a reason for Azula being so awful to her. Ty Lee _hopes _Azula has come to her senses and is going to either take her openly or leave her.

As Ty Lee grabs her purse and skitters down the stairs, she is interrupted by mother shouting, "Ty Lee, take the cat to the vet! Your sister can't!"

To that, Ty Lee rolls her eyes and groans loudly. Yes, because she totally wants to take the cat to the vet when she has to meet Azula in two hours.

But if she were to say she could not, her mom would ask too many questions. Ty Lee finds it best just to speed through the appointment and take her adorable kitty with her to make it impossible for Azula to say no.

She drags the cat in its case into her car and drives to the veterinarian's, which is near the pier, and fairly near to the playground Azula demanded to meet Ty Lee at. A koala-sheep and tiger-monkey make judgmental faces at Ty Lee's cat, and she glares them down. Finally, the vet calls her name.

"My mother didn't tell me you were so cute," Ty Lee says, smiling at the vet. He has dark hair, dark eyes... surprising muscles. The white coat with the pen tucked inside is quite flattering on his body. But, she would probably proposition him even if he were unattractive.

He squirms uncomfortably. She tugs slightly at the bottom of her shirt. He does not notice.

"So, what's wrong with the cat?" he asks, looking at the healthy animal.

"Well, we tried to keep her in the kitchen with a gate, but she kept jumping over it. And whenever people or cars go by, she sits on the window and hisses at them. My mother thinks she might be depressed."

The vet looks stunned. Ty Lee was alarmed at the cat's behavior as well, but his slack jaw is impressive. He examines the papers detailing the information of Ty Lee's family closely. This is _perfectly normal _cat behavior, but the family of this girl who keeps batting her eyes at him and adjusting her cleavage is one of the wealthiest and most notorious in the Fire Nation.

"I'll just write you a script for Prozac," he says with a brief grimace and Ty Lee claps. She looks superfluously overjoyed at the idea of drugging a normal animal. If there is anything the veterinarian has noticed about the Fire Nation, is that people truly like easy situations and think tiny problems are extremely important.

He misses the fucking Water Tribe.

After checking out took her so long, she races in the direction of the playground, takes the cat to the pharmacy, in which she exchanges numbers with the pharmacist, and buys a kit of press on nails she will probably never wear. They are not meant for backflips. She frowns slightly at the thought of how many nails she lost when she did gymnastics, but then she destroyed her career with a few late nights and the summer she turned pretty, and her parents demanded she behave better, get good grades, not party or be so obsessed with her appearance after years of not caring. This was followed by a foreboding threat to sign her up for the special forces of the army.

As she dances from foot to foot in line, she sees on the wall a series of propaganda comic books. Mostly historical scenes of epic conquerors; the line about General Iroh was discontinued four years ago. One issue catches her eye ─ it features Princess Azula, the cover of her in a red bikini and knee high boots, blue fire erupting from her fingertips and colliding with a Water Tribe chieftain with a primitive bone axe. Ty Lee grabs it, although the only media she consumes is romance films and reality television, and sets it under the kit of nails.

"I'm going to marry her," Ty Lee whispers to her kitty, tapping on the quite good illustration of Azula.

The cat meows, as if in approval.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Ty Lee twists on a swing, her feet digging into the gravel.

The kitty is on her lap, and he is not happy. She wonders if she should give him his Prozac to make him seem less upset about being on the swings.

Azula asked to meet her here, which Ty Lee probably should have denied, but she has been up thinking about slow dancing in Sushi King all night. The world is in strange, vibrant colors fiercer than auras while in her exhausted and strained state.

She has been here before with Azula. More than once. Even after she pushed her off of half of the playground structures.

_"Do you ever wonder what it would be like to fly?" murmurs Ty Lee as she pushes Azula on the swings._

_ They never swing side by side; she always pushes the princess._

_ "No," airily replies Azula. "I've done it before and it's nothing to write home about."_

_ They are on the swings at three in the morning after fleeing a political event in the pagodas across the way. It is still bright and the classical Fire Nation music is audible from here. Their presence here is most unbecoming of an aristocrat and princess. Red flowers are in bloom, poking up around their slender bodies. They have vaguely dazed expressions, one with wickedly glistening golden eyes and the other with protuberant eyes, pupils dilated in a way that makes her squint in the moonlight._

_"I think about it all the time." Ty Lee is fixated by the sky; she has never seen the stars so bright. __In her exquisite but crowded penthouse, the sky is blocked out by the smog of the ships in the pier and the city lights. "Like, if you could just grow wings, would you?"_

_The princess pauses. She seems to think about it, chewing on her lip, which her new secret girlfriend eyes lasciviously._

_"You can fly with fire. Just out of your palms, your feet. My father pushed me out of a window once and told me to save myself with bending," she purrs, closing her eyes and pushing off of the dirt. The sky does not intrigue her, then again she is on pills and her companion of the night on more questionable drugs._

_ "Did you?" Ty Lee turns onto her elbow, examining Azula closely._

_ "No, I'm a ghost." Azula snorts derisively. Ty Lee looks mildly hurt, but her numbness quickly allows her to forget it. "You're not the brightest candle in the bunch, are you?"_

_ "If I had a gold piece for every time I heard that I would be even richer than I am," Ty Lee says, smiling. Azula touches her face and pushes her lips back down._

_ "I hate your smile. How can you be so happy?" Azula says, realizing that she is crashing and burning. They lie there in absolute silence for several minutes after her smooth, overly warm fingers brush against Ty Lee's face._

_ "If you hate my smile so much, why did you leave the party with me?" the mystery girl demands of Azula. Azula hates being asked prying questions._

_ "Well, I was impressed by you stripping on the table," Azula says, slight condescension in her tone. "What are you even on?"_

_ Ty Lee shrugs, smiling again. Azula does not touch her again. "Enough to make out with the princess of the Fire Nation in a bathroom. I'm pretty sure that's how you get banished."_

_ "It absolutely is." Azula rolls her eyes and leans back._

* * *

Two years ago, Azula's sky fell down. She would have never predicted it in a thousand years, since she had been perfect for her entire life. The perfect daughter, the perfect princess, the perfect politician's prop, but when her mother died things gradually slid downhill.

The... accusations in the papers were a significant PR disaster, and Azula suffered the brunt of it since her dear brother decided to get himself shipped away to live with their uncle after having a fistfight with their father on Winter Solstice.

Azula handled it better than anyone could have expected; she simply turned to drugs and sneaking out at night and dating a girl who was supposedly dreadful for her. But Azula _liked _her, until she was forced to blame that girl for her failings and become a plastic doll.

The day her world broke, Azula set two white pills on her tongue.

That is the first thing she can remember that morning, and it likely _was _the first thing she did that morning. It was summer, and she would likely have to train, but she was in a habit that she had no desire to quit.

They were maybe two milligrams each and fast acting, possibly long lasting and potentially mind blasting. She swallowed them simultaneously with cherry cola, gagging at the foul taste when they dissolved on her tongue, and sat up in her bed.

The sky was sunless that day, and Azula always felt sickly on cloudy days. As the best firebender in history, the sun was very important to her general wellbeing.

With a single groggy movement, she grabbed her phone and found those songs her girlfriend had forced her to buy. The music was by some band no one had heard of except for that girl, Azula was certain. But she did not have more than one friend ─ who was not very musically astute ─ and most people she knows are stuffy old politicians.

Most metaphors in Fire Nation romance ballads are about flames, but every song from this band compared _everything_ to lightning. Azula found it tasteful, while Mai kept telling her it was tacky.

It took exactly ten plays on repeat of the three minute song that she did not _dislike _for the double dose of pills to set in. She lay back on her silk red blankets and ran her toes along the recently cleaned sheets on the mattress. She touched a tear and tried to recall which servant fucked up and let that happen to Azula's bed, but she could not worry about it with a slowed heart and floating, relaxed thoughts.

There was no such thing as forced training and painful appearances. Only a peaceful exhaustion like floating on waves or summoning the crystalline clear azure lights of bright lightning. But Xanax can be played with inside, unlike her signature firebending move.

Her father supplied the pills after her head collapsed and he could not handle another scandal. Of course, it was a temporary solution because it was the sole cause of his biggest scandal yet. Much more than anything mother or Zuko did.

Maybe he was justified in his impulsive actions, given her behavior. Panic attacks nightly, nearly murdering people. And so he figured drugging her was easier than trying to talk her down. Of course, Azula took the righteous liberty of dosing herself with enough pills to get high instead of relaxed and not struggling to breathe and tossing over furniture with tears flowing from her eyes.

It was easier to drug her than deal with the fact that he was responsible for the obscene level of stress and oppression in her life. Easier to drug her than admit that his insanities were passed on and multiplied in a mildly traumatized and less than mildly psychopathic and unstable.

Easier to stack her bedside table with Xanax (her drug of choice), lorezapam (a backup benzo that requires about four more milligrams to even feel bliss), hydroxizine (which makes her fall asleep), and hydrocodene (which is left over from a training accident). Her father did not seem to care as long as she made the Fire Nation look good, did not incite any way to slander her family, reminded the people of other nations how much _more _she was worth and was not too high to practice firebending ten hours a day without stopping (for which five stimulants become useful).

She found her moments of relaxation on that awful rainy morning: the twisting of knots in her stomach and the crash from energy drinks and a variety of pills that should not be combined, interrupted by pain from running up a tree and back-flipping, painting the sky blue, and then colliding her feet with the ground too hard. She picked through the pills, squinting at the labels, and found two valium. She shook the bottle, frowns, and takes both of them.

It was funny how the control freak lets medications control her.

Her vivid nightmares were forgotten and she felt the desire to drag herself out of bed, shivering with how it felt reliving the pain while helplessly asleep. Azula refused to be helpless. _Refused_.

Today was going to be beyond unpleasant. She had an interview at three, and then her father's ridiculous political _thing_ and not a moment to herself to toy with the lightning on her fingertips, or to tune out the world around her with a bottle of lorezapam and forget her troubles. Or to kiss the candy sweet lips of the one she loved.

It was no wonder she was crazy.

Her phone rang and she begrudgingly answered it. Mai. Of course, Mai, who seemed to think she was Azula's babysitter when her father did not have his claws in her.

"Are you alive? You disappeared last night and I probably have to check," Mai said with a long sigh.

"I am very alive and you should shut up and stay out of my business."

"You ran off with that girl again." Mai was quiet for a blissful moment. "I did make it home before my parents. Did you manage the same this time?"

"Yes," Azula lied. It was not _that _much of a lie when Ozai did not notice.

She found her training clothes while remaining on the phone with Mai. Azula confided nothing about her whereabouts, because she was _certain _that her phone was tapped and that everything around her was bugged.

That was_ not_ paranoia. That wasOzai.

* * *

Ty Lee thinks Azula may have stood her up as she waits endlessly.

She spends that time trying to teach her cat tricks. Cats can do tricks, right? Maybe she and Fon-Fon can start a circus!

"No, just, roll over..." Ty Lee murmurs, holding the treat in her fingertips. It is sticky against her skin. "You took your medicine, now roll over and I'll give you your treat."

The cat blinks at Ty Lee.

In time, she supposes.

* * *

Azula sits in the car, rubbing her wrist with one hand.

She could not sleep last night at all, her thoughts surging with how it all went wrong. How an ordinary morning and an ordinary interview and the lingering taste of her girlfriend on her lips somehow resulted in a publicized catastrophe that ended up with her institutionalized for months.

Princess Azula is certain that, while kissing in a grocery store is classless, that photograph cannot compare to her tumultuous year of drugs, sex and violence. _Those _were uncharacteristic of Azula, shameful and largely related to how Ozai drugged her up because it was too much work to help anyone else. What is _not _uncharacteristic of Azula is occasionally having human desires, like wanting a relationship with a girl who makes her have _fun_. Forces her, to be honest.

Yet, of course, Ozai utterly neglects to admit the few reasons Azula is certain he has for treating this like treason.

"You are going to ask her over for dinner. It isn't that difficult. She's been over more than once, hasn't she?" Ozai comments, the _been over _emphasized pointedly.

"I know. Just promise no corpses this time." Azula escapes the limousine the moment it stops, because she knows that statement was impulsive and idiotic.

She walks out towards the playground, where she sees the very odd scene of a pretty girl on swings... talking to a cat.

Azula really picks the crazies.

* * *

Ty Lee looks up at Azula and nearly kicks Fon-Fon in surprise.

"I thought you wouldn't come but you did!" she shrieks, throwing her arms around Azula. Ty Lee feels Azula's body bend slightly under her, and she feels a creeping sensation that something is _wrong_. "Please tell me you wanted to meet me for good reasons."

Ty Lee crosses her fingers in front of Azula and the princess slowly nods. Slightly squinting, Ty Lee thinks there might genuinely be something wrong.

"I would like to invite you to dinner to meet my father as..." Azula hesitates. "As a romantic person."

She would like to take that back. She would _like _to tell Ty Lee to play platonic so that there is no more carnage. Honestly, Azula probably will, but she doubts Ty Lee would get in that car if she knew Azula was extending this invitation just to further cover up their teenage romance.

Ty Lee's eyes glitter with happy tears, her lips twitching with a victorious smile she cannot suppress. Fiercely, she hugs Azula again, squeezing her tightly, as the princess feels like a rag doll. That is not usual for someone who likes control, physical, mental and emotional.

Yes, something _is wrong_, but Ty Lee does not care.

Because Azula is going to let Ty Lee meet her father in the way Ty Lee had _hoped_, and that is worth all of the discomfort in the entire world.

Azula takes a deep breath and nods in the direction of her limousine.

Ty Lee grins.

This will not go well.


	14. Chapter 14

Ty Lee enters the limousine without hesitation.

As Azula sits beside her, she feels like bait. She essentially _is_, and the lies she just told certainly were to lure Ty Lee into her father's hell soaked lair. It's just a teenage affair, it's just a teenage affair, it's just a teenage affair and eventually those butterfly-bees will die and she will move on.

Until then, Azula gazes out of the window as Caldera rolls by. It's a beautiful city; she wants it to be hers. It's a beautiful city and she is suddenly realizing that they are not going in the direction of her home.

Ty Lee doesn't notice; she is locked in an awkward conversation with Ozai that Azula will rescue her from only if Ty Lee is about to let something dangerous slip.

"Where are we, father?" Azula asks, shattering the discussion of reality television like breakaway glass.

"We're going to the train station. I sent you an e-mail regarding the change in plans last night. I assumed you had checked it."

"That is something you should have told me," Azula says coldly. "In person."

His eyes flicker to Ty Lee and Azula leans back. Yes, he could destroy her far-too-fragile teenage romance with a few words and he evidently knows that she knows that.

"Well, I would have to tell your dear... _friend _regardless. Your brother is home a week early." Ozai sounds none too pleased, and so Azula thinks perhaps he didn't choreograph it. "I'm certain it will make our dinner more interesting. We're going out."

That means there is less of a chance that it will end in incinerated corpses. It also means, however, that Azula will be forced uncomfortably into her _I'm going to be Fire Lord and people can't see me whining at my father in public _persona. Her brother's presence, of course, will spark their incessant sibling rivalry.

Not telling her was a good move on Ozai's part. Azula has no time to prepare for what Zuko and his ridiculous envy will unleash... to the point in which he presumes Azula would give up her romance in order to one up her brother or something that probably is a fair assumption.

But Azula is better than that.

Or so she believes.

* * *

Three years ago, everything went awry in Princess Azula's life during a school play. Her brother was never someone she enjoyed the company of, nor did she like him at all. It wasn't _their _fault; their parents had decided to divide the family sharply down the middle because of Azula. Because of reasons nobody ever bothered _telling _Azula.

But he was out having fun with his new girlfriend. And Azula hated him for his fuckup freedom.

She had her attention focused on her stupid play that she was highlighting random lines on in blue. So help her if the school does _Love Amongst the Dragons_ another year she will drop out and become a bounty hunter.

And there was the scene from the whining guy who thought his girlfriend was an apathetic bitch. It made Azula sigh because it did nothing but remind her that she _could _be getting on with breaking up Zuko and Mai, which was one of the worst things that ever happened to her. But, no, she was memorizing these horrid lines for no reason other than her desperate need to coerce her Humanities teacher.

She _did _like the words:

_And thus on the shores of the Boiling Rock_

_ Weeps the deceitful crocodile-hawk_

She had no clue if crocodile-hawks really did cry when eating people, but it would be fascinating if they did. Perhaps she could get one as an exotic pet when she became Fire Lord, which, ugh, hinged on her successes in every venture.

While Zuko got to go out with his girlfriend.

Fuck this.

She glanced up at the opening door.

"I would appreciate it if you would knock," Azula said quietly with no regard for the fact that she was addressing her father. She was genuinely considering running away to pursue her bounty hunter dreams at this point.

"I have no idea why I would need to, unless you're doing something I'd dislike," Ozai said so _calmly_, as if he were not _ruining her life_. "Speaking of which, I have my answer about you and going to the prom with that older girl."

Azula glanced up, the highlighter smearing the color of her fire on her fingers.

"What is it?" Azula whispered.

"That you can go if you come home immediately afterwards and are escorted there immediately before," he said and Azula wanted to hug him, and _would _if that were acceptable in their family. She expected a vehement _no_. "I will be checking up on you."

_You will be hiring spies_, she thought but she just capped her highlighter. "You can trust me, father. I'm not Zuko; you raised me better than that."

"No, you're not, but you're a teenager."

"You were a teenager once and now you run an empire."

"I was a teenager once and I know what I was doing as one."

To that, Azula muttered to herself, _you mean _who_ you were doing as one_, as soon as he was gone.

* * *

The Sozin Station trains blur by like silver bullets.

They make Ty Lee's head spin as she watches them, but watching Azula and Ozai makes her head spin more. The trio is surrounded by bodyguards armed to the teeth but not openly, and Ty Lee has never gotten that attention before.

New money, after all.

The right train stops and Ty Lee cannot help but be excited. She remembers walking into Azula's home and seeing a mantle adorned with pictures of only Azula, with not a trace of Zuko or Azula's mom; Ty Lee doesn't even know the former Fire Lady's name, to be honest.

Azula's fingers brush against Ty Lee's hand, but slip away before Ty Lee can hold her. Zuko has just left the train and is confidently striding out with one suitcase in hand. But his prideful stride becomes that of a baby animal with its tail between its legs. He clearly is as scared of Ozai's opinion as Ty Lee is.

Zuko stands in front of his father and sister. His eyes then drift to Ty Lee. The first expression is of course that of _'you got pretty?' _which everyone who knew Ty Lee in her past makes. Then he smiles at her with a glint of attraction in his eyes, which everyone Ty Lee comes across does.

"We're going out to dinner. I'll have your other luggage picked up and delivered from home," Ozai says coldly and Zuko just nods. "This is Azula's _friend_."

Azula swallows. Ty Lee watches her open her mouth and thinks she is going to proclaim their romantic relationship, but then Azula whispers to Ty Lee, "In public he'll be too embarrassed to take it well."

Ty Lee smiles and nods.

Azula actually wishes manipulating her wasn't this easy.

* * *

Three years ago, days before prom, Azula fainted on stage.

Her father acted so surprised, but her awful brother turned out to be not so awful in this case, since he seemed to have a moderate understanding of what the fourteen year old perpetually went through. So much for a successful matinee of _Love Amongst the Dragons_, granted that the princess smashed her head on the scenery.

Zuko stood up for her like an idiot. With an Agni Kai in the middle of their fucking apartment, which, for some reason, father didn't turn down like a sane person.

Fire Lord Ozai had two children in the hospital that night.

And so he made the shame disappear, and erased Zuko from the family tree.

* * *

They eat at a restaurant with a gigantic stone statue of some Air Guru. A fountain pours from the Water Tribe warrior on the other side, and behind where Azula is sitting is the symbol for Earth as graffiti; it's an ironic reference to the rebellions during the Hundred Year War.

Everything else is traditionally Fire Nation, including the menu.

Ty Lee thinks it might be just a cash grab. Like ninety percent of things that her grandma goes on and on about being overcompensation for the war. _"A victor's economy isn't worth Air Nomad fruit pies in the shops..."_

The interrogation begins as Ty Lee is thinking about her grandma's racism.

* * *

"Right, Azula's friend. You must have some kind of boyfriend, given the way you dress and look. Addicted to love, I assume? You only want to fall into it and not go past those opening butterflies," Ozai says and Ty Lee flushes bright pink.

Azula sees Ty Lee gazing at her. She swallows.

She repeats history's mistakes the moment she opens her mouth and starts with, "She is my girlfriend, and how dare you speak to her that way! How dare you...!"

* * *

Azula is outside with her father and all she can smell is cigarette smoke, rain and discomfort. Ty Lee has left after giving Azula a timid kiss. Zuko is in the bathroom. The cars flash past on the street, splashing puddles up into the air as they whirr past green lights.

"I'm sorry. No one noticed."

"That's what you said last time."

"It wasn't a breakdown. I stood up for my girl and I... shouldn't have, but it's human nature."

"You're better than human. You are an empress and she is a tramp. I'm separating you from her and the cheerleader she made you into. You always have an offer at Akane Academy; it's the school a princess serious about politics would attend."

Azula blinks. She probably should not have shouted out the part about her declining the Akane Academy offer in order to attempt to taste and touch what being a normal teenager is about.

"You won't hurt her, right?" Azula whispers as the splashing of another car going by conceals her words from any eavesdroppers.

"She is the type of woman I would date. Your romance is like fashion and will pass by too quickly for me to be concerned," Ozai comments and Azula is not optimistic. "I want you to break up with her tomorrow. Long distance relationships don't ever work out and I can't bear to see my little girl hurt."

Azula has so many harsh but beautiful words to say.

But she saves them for the break-up, because she knows her father is serious.

She also knows that she has no choice anymore.

* * *

At Azula's last day of school before her weeklong break with her father and brother and then her trip to Akane Academy, Azula and Ty Lee say goodbye.

They say goodbye for the last time. Azula swallows her questions, apologies, anything unscripted, even though she knows it would be easier if she offered platitudes and a dash of romanticized political rhetoric. But she just breathes in and steps back when Ty Lee stares at her lips.

They say goodbye.

They say their last goodbyes.

Ty Lee murmurs, "Ask them for a light up spine at the factory."

It only hurts when Azula laughs.

_**END PART ONE**_


	15. Chapter 15

**Part Two: Winter**

* * *

Ty Lee sees Azula again for the first time in the window of an ice cream parlor.

She is bundled in a pink parka, with a cute fuzzy hat with ears over her braid and forehead that presses her headphones to her ears as she listens to some meaningless pop song about love or sex or carefree days. Her boots are her favorite ones, and she did her make-up nicely today, but none of it feels good enough to be caught by Azula in… if Azula is real, and in that place for no reason, which she definitely is not.

It is a frozen winter morning almost five months after Ty Lee watched her walk away forever. Caldera doesn't really ever get much snow, but this year there have been two blizzards and sometimes the snow even sticks. It closes down _everything_, since Caldera doesn't exactly have the best program for salting the roads like in snowier cities.

Ty Lee thinks at first that she is maybe just imagining seeing Princess Azula drinking a strawberry milkshake, that it is just someone who was blessed enough to look similar and Ty Lee is cursed enough to hallucinate seeing her.

Springtime just wouldn't come. That was the problem. Ty Lee is just going crazy because of this abysmal and absurd cold. The world isn't supposed to make it snow in Caldera…

Ha. It would be an icy day in Caldera when Ty Lee would get to see Azula again…

Ty Lee thinks she should go inside at first, but then she realizes that if Azula is with her father or with anyone who _reports _to her father, she would be in trouble. Then she sees some old man Ty Lee doesn't recognize no matter how hard she squints. She really wishes she knew more about Azula's family, that her father didn't seem so bent on erasing everyone but his daughter and himself.

Risking it feels… wrong. What if Azula doesn't want to see her ever again? What if she found somebody new at boarding school and Ty Lee doesn't matter to her at all?

She sighs and can see her breath on the cold wind. Ty Lee starts to walk away, the snow crunching under her cute boots, but then she realizes that she would never forgive herself if she didn't at least get a closer look. She pulls out her phone and starts texting Suki about really meaningless things but pretends that they are important so no one will look too hard at her.

With that disguise adopted, she walks into the cute mock-diner and glances around. The warmth hits her, with the scent of ice cream and a bakery and bacon for some reason… maybe maple syrup. She glances around and finds a seat that's not too far away but far away enough that she can still hide.

The waiter looks at her as she stammers through a boring order. He is star struck by her pretty face, just like anybody else, except for that girl across the restaurant.

It's her. It's absolutely her and she looks like she wants to stab the man sitting across from her.

_Uncle_. That's her uncle, Ty Lee realizes as she sees his dull gold eyes glint in the fluorescent lights.

Ty Lee wonders if he is as bad as Ozai, or why Azula even is with him, or why Azula is in Caldera. It's Solstice-time, duh, but she didn't think Azula would just come home like anybody else. She doesn't look different, but she does at the same time. She does look more cylon-esque, and Ty Lee wants to laugh about it.

She spends at least ten minutes working up the courage to walk past on the way to the bathroom and see if Azula gave her the time of day or not.

Ty Lee finally stands up, making her decision and shoving her mittens into her pink parka pockets. She begins to walk forward before she sees that she was right. That she was right with her assumption that Azula moved on easily at her school.

Because she hears the conversation of another girl, and Ty Lee stops and then starts walking and then stops again.

"… that's good to hear," her uncle says warmly to the girl who was just talking about something that Ty Lee did not care enough about to listen to.

"Stop pretending to care, Uncle. You promised you wouldn't sit with us," Azula snaps, and, oh yes, it is her. Ty Lee does not know why she keeps trying to convince herself that it isn't the princess.

"I said no such thing," Iroh says, mock-offended.

"I told you that you were supposed to," Azula mutters and Ty Lee smiles faintly.

But then the other girl talks and Ty Lee kind of wants to run away.

"It's okay. I think he's funny," says a girl who Ty Lee feels the compulsion to see because she probably is prettier than her or maybe that girl is just Azula's friend like Mai was.

Ty Lee walks forward and past and then pretends to double back, as if she did not notice Azula until that moment.

"Oh, hi!" Ty Lee says brightly, like she would to anyone she knew.

"Oh, hi," Azula says and it is not as kind as Ty Lee wanted it to be.

"Did she go to school with you before?" asks mystery girlfriend-thief and Ty Lee wants to pretend that she doesn't just imagine Azula starting to move her hand away from the mystery girlfriend-thief's knee.

"Sort of. Good to see you, uh, whatever your name is." Azula smiles like she does at people she greets halfheartedly at political events and Ty Lee just starts walking and doesn't look back until she crawls out of the bathroom window and hopes that she will not be arrested for running away without paying for her milkshake.

Ty Lee thinks her tears are going to freeze to her face and that is the worst feeling on the entire planet.

She guesses that maybe everyone was right when they said that she did not mean that much to Azula in the first place. Ty Lee starts walking, getting her bearings and returning to her route home as the streetlights flicker and try to puncture the coat of snow on them.

It is not like Ty Lee cannot find somebody new too. That she could not move on from her high school affair. Azula was maybe the girl Ty Lee lost her virginity to and she taught her how to do _fun things _for once, like skipping school and jaywalking.

Ty Lee smiles a little bit. Her lips hurt. She reaches into her pocket and rubs strawberry chapstick over her lips before crossing the street and arriving on her block.

Apparently Ozai was right.

Their love was like a fashion fad to…

To _both of them_.

To both of them, right?

* * *

_**AN: There is a much longer chapter coming next time, which will have the repercussions of the event, some gross wings in a greasy diner, and the mystery girlfriend-thief. But I really loved this scene in itself and so I'm posting it. **_


	16. Chapter 16

Suki does not know what to tell Ty Lee.

She had really been hoping that Ty Lee moved on from Azula. Of course, Ty Lee has not dated anyone since her break-up, but that was a good behavior change at the time. Suki never has been a fan of flavor-of-the-week relationships, even if it meant Ty Lee being hung up on someone as vile as Azula.

But it is pretty evident from the hysterical sobbing about Azula being both home and on a date with another girl that Ty Lee is beyond hung up on her ex. She is _obsessed _with Azula, just like she was before, only now it has been hiding under the surface for too long. The pressure has built up and now Ty Lee has erupted like a volcano all over Suki's bedroom floor.

"How could she do that?" Ty Lee cries and Suki attempts to pat her back soothingly. It doesn't go so well; Ty Lee pushes her away and lies down, her tears rolling down her cheeks and dripping into her ears.

"She moved on because you two broke up. She went away to school and found somebody else," Suki offers and it does not help at all.

"_I_ didn't move on!"

"She did, and you have to accept that."

"You are the worst consoler in the history of ever!" Ty Lee screams, tossing her pillow at her best friend. Her only _good _friend.

Suki sighs.

This is annoying.

* * *

Azula does not _love _Ummi. Maybe Azula _likes _her, but Ummi is still hung up on an ex-boyfriend. It was supposed to be some kind of rebound sex that wound up to be a relationship. A relationship that father approves of for the first time in history…

Largely because her father is an important Water Tribe senator and she is well behaved. Azula is not stuck on her ex, of course, but she does miss the excitement and the way her heart would pound out of control when she was with Ty Lee. She thinks _that _is how a teenage love affair is supposed to feel, not this stiff discomfort as she disinterestedly studies the ice cream that Ummi bought her.

"I'm excited for the Solstice Party," Ummi says so _sweetly_, trying on her third light blue, ultra-conservative dress. She is stunningly beautiful, with her smooth, shiny brown hair and beautiful face. But she is not very spectacularly dressed. Too _good girl_.

Azula likes the bad girls only.

Which is how she got into a number of messes.

"You look good," Azula says and it is incredibly believable. Thank the spirits she is such a talented liar.

Her father approves of her boarding school girlfriend. That is the best Azula can remotely hope for in a romance; the last two girls did not turn out well, and she should try to make the best of this. At least Ummi is obscenely hung up on her boyfriend whatever-the-fuck-his-name-is. Her parents sent her away. He tried to come rescue her from the school. It went poorly.

Zuko has brought home Mai twice.

Mai is here right now.

Mai is still pretending that Azula does not exist, even after Azula broke up with Ty Lee.

Everyone around the princess sucks.

* * *

In the afternoon, Suki drives Ty Lee home, because she thinks that the crying might be a hazard. Ty Lee agrees, because her eyes are almost glued together with mascara that claimed to be waterproof on the packaging. Obviously that was a lie.

_Lies_. Just like Azula! Just like _life_!

Ty Lee gets out of the car and murmurs a _thank you _to Suki. Her cheeks are stiff with the tears that dried on them as Suki talked her down for the entire drive here. She grabs her pretty pink purses, zips her pretty pink parka, and starts the walk up her lengthy driveway. She rubs her hands together as she tries her best to erase Azula from her memory.

There's some big Solstice Party that she has been waiting for _weeks _to attend. It has all of the important people in Caldera at it, the paparazzi, the finest of food and drinks. An excuse to wear one of her multiple new formal dresses.

She _at least _can look forward to that.

But once she gets inside, she is plunged into the chaotic pre-party mode of her sisters. In fact, before she can even get her coat off, Kikuko is in front of her in a frenzy.

"Ty Lee, _please _hem my dress for the Solstice Party! The _Royal Family _is coming to it, and _Prince Zuko _will be there," Kikuko begs, waving around a dark red dress in Ty Lee's face.

Oh damn. Ty Lee rues the day that she decided to learn how to sew and knit. It was back when she was _nerdy _and did not have any other real distinguishing hobbies. Wait – _double oh damn_! – if Zuko is going to be there, then there is _no way _that Azula will not.

Her heart starts to race, her palms sweating. No, no, no. She bets Azula will come with her _date_. That awful slut Ty Lee has never met.

"I'm not _Ye Xian_. So shut up and find somebody else to hem your dress," Ty Lee snaps and Kikuko's eyes widen. Ty Lee does not even _care _what anybody thinks of her at this point.

Ty Lee _can't _go to this party. Ever. Yeah, Solstice is a kind of big deal, but she _is not _going to face Azula ever again. The princess can have her new girlfriend and her new life. Ty Lee refuses to let heartbreak destroy the rest of her senior year.

Her sister abandons her.

* * *

Ty Lee's head spins for the whole afternoon. She had an outfit planned, but it is not good enough. It has to be better. It has to make Azula cry and _beg _for Ty Lee to take her back. It must be the greatest party outfit in the history of time.

But Ty Lee is coming up short. And she hates it.

The red dress is nice. The gold jewelry is gorgeous. Her heels are exquisite.

Yet, the _sexiness _factor is missing. Ty Lee can be beautiful, but at a party like this, she will be impossible to notice if she is just beautiful. Even if she sparkles like the sun, nobody will look at her twice, especially not Princess Azula.

As the night wears on and her parents call for her to get in the shower and hurry up, Ty Lee gulps.

She does the unthinkable; she rummages around for scissors, grabs the pretty red dress and cuts it into a… certain kind of fashion statement.

After that, she races to the shower, peeling off her clothes on the way. The mirror is steamy and damp from whichever sibling was using it last, but she does not pay that a second of her attention. Her heart is pounding over the fact that she just cut an expensive, stunning dress to slivers in order to catch the attention of a _total bitch _that Ty Lee does not even need in her life.

Why does she even still care about Azula?

Maybe because as she stands naked under the mini-waterfall, Ty Lee can remember being pinned against the wall of the showers after cheerleading. She had a ring-pop in her mouth and Azula was on her. It was utter bliss.

She tries to force those thoughts out of her head and reaches for the soap. But the moment she puts the shampoo into her hair the shower turns cold.

"WHO USED THE LAST OF THE HOT WATER?" she screams at the top of her lungs.

* * *

Peaceful classical music plays in a sun-drenched room. The Parliament Building is _huge_ and feels like a mansion meets museum and not a political building. She sees the tight security, the tight dresses and the light snacks being served.

She sees fish in a fountain, swimming merrily while she breaks free of her family and seeks Azula's gaze. If only she can find Azula herself.

No luck. Maybe the princess is in the back rooms with her father and her _new girlfriend_.

After giving up on finding the princess, Ty Lee instantly seeks the patio, and finds it. It is on a balcony above the sprawling city, and is slightly less packed than the sweaty main rooms. She passes priceless artwork, well-dressed waiters and overhears snippets of conversation as she makes her way outside.

When she pushes open the door, she feels the cool breeze on her face. It dries the sweat on her skin and gives her gooseflesh. She _loves _that; it feels _real_, unlike the party. Unlike her life.

She walks to the edge of the balcony and leans over the edge of the railing.

"The city is certainly beautiful at night," says a voice behind Ty Lee that she thinks she might be imagining. There is no way that Azula is addressing her. No way that Azula has the _nerve _to address her.

Then again, what did Azula do wrong? They broke up. She had every right to do what she did, even if it makes Ty Lee froth with anger.

"It really is," Ty Lee says. She wishes she had said something more _biting_.

"Do you like the party at all?" Azula asks. "I think it's boring." She yawns and walks over to stand beside Ty Lee.

"Shouldn't you not be talking to me?" Ty Lee inquires huffily.

"No. I shouldn't. But my father is occupied giving some kind of _speech _to his host of slimy friends. I figured this was my chance to talk to you," Azula says honestly. Ty Lee wishes she could be angrier after hearing that. "Her name is Ummi. Yes, we're dating. No, she's not _better _than you. At least, as far as I know. She hasn't slept with me yet."

Ty Lee rolls her eyes. "Nobody has ever slept with you but me."

Azula makes a little _sighing _noise that Ty Lee cannot quite explain or understand. It is the one she often makes when Ty Lee talks about their romance, the one that makes Ty Lee certain that Azula is hiding a good deal from her ex-girlfriend.

"Yes, that is true," Azula says as coolly as the nighttime breeze.

"The security is watching us," Ty Lee says, nodding at them.

"I think they're watching you… in _that_," Azula remarks. Ty Lee scoffs but blushes, and the princess offers, "There's somewhere here much prettier than this balcony that I could show you."

Ty Lee looks at her. "I'm not interested."

"Oh, come on. I haven't done anything to you," Azula purrs and Ty Lee clenches her jaw. "One look. I'm going anyway."

And Ty Lee feels her heart crumble. "Okay. I'll go see this pretty place," she relents.

Azula smirks and beckons.

* * *

Ty Lee gazes at what must be a full museum hidden greedily within the back rooms of a usually off limits building. Azula led her stealthily through the party, and electrocuted the circuits of the security cameras in this musty, wide back room with her bending. They are alone and unsupervised, which can only lead to things Ty Lee knows she will regret.

"These are all from the war," Azula says, gesturing at the weapons that are scattered in with art and monuments from the other nations. "We kept some of these things for… posterity."

Ty Lee laughs. "Posterity? Yeah, we just don't like giving up our spoils. Or our leadership everywhere else."

"Now, Ty Lee, the other nations were simply war-torn, broken and needed proper guidance. The Fire Lord is a leader who is kept in check by other branches of government," Azula chides mockingly. She very well knows that the Fire Nation still has its claws tightly dug into the entire planet.

"And one day all of it's gonna be yours," Ty Lee says, stunned by the thought. It is so simple and obvious, but she just never paid enough attention to it.

"You look good. I presume you dressed so hot because you wanted to make me jealous?"

"It's working. You aren't bringing Ummi back in here."

Azula shrugs. "That is true. I assumed it would be easy to forget, but then I saw you in _that_." She is telling Ty Lee what Ty Lee wants to hear. And it is successful. "Now, do you want to make-out in front of a long lost Earth Kingdom treasure?"

Ty Lee fights and fights to refuse. She would be nothing more than the _other woman _if she agrees.

But, of course, "Yes, yes, I would, princess."

She walks to her ex and kisses her on the lips.

Hard.


	17. Chapter 17

**AN: **There's some action at the beginning of this chapter, and that's not really my forte or favorite thing (I think I've watched like two action movies in my life) so I hope I did okay at it. I just am pulling all the dramatic stops, and Azula being a princess in a monarchy has some drama opportunities that are a little less strictly-high-school-style. Thanks for reading so far!

* * *

Ty Lee walks to her ex and kisses her on the lips.

Hard.

They are hiding from the world and Ty Lee doesn't know if she wants to be the other woman.

Ty Lee already feels regret surging through her. The truth is, she loves Azula more than anything, but Azula will go back to school, Azula has replaced her, this is going to be wonderful for right now, but the ecstasy ends in heartbreak.

The kiss breaks breathlessly. "Are you okay with this?"

"More than okay," Azula replies softly and returns her lips to Ty Lee's.

Azula places her hand on Ty Lee's lower back and Ty Lee has no idea how cheating is this easy for the two of them. Azula will chew her up and spit her out and Ty Lee will feel so stupid but _oh this feels so good and fun_. Azula is going to move away again in a week and a half.

But she just takes Azula's hands and weaves her way backwards to lean against the wall. Azula smirks and kisses her neck. It sends a shiver through Ty Lee's spine. Their tongues intertwine, their hips against each other. Azula sort of gently sort of not pushes Ty Lee up, against the wall harder. Her body shakes and scrapes and she feels so alive.

Ty Lee pretends it means nothing as she digs her fingernails into her ex-girlfriend. She gasps and moans and feels like she is drowning. Azula's hand meanders up under Ty Lee's shirt and it is heavenly. Her legs wrap around Azula's waist with such ease that the acrobat feels out of sorts. It is as smooth as it ever was. And Azula has her pinned and is about to take off her clothes before the door opens and Azula pulls away in an instant.

She thinks it is going to be some guard who heard them, one she can coerce into keeping it quiet, but instead she is staring at a hunk of metal flying directly at her. She dodges it as Ty Lee pushes off of the wall and tackles the huge earthbender despite her petite size.

Azula's back has hit against one of the relics and Ty Lee looks up to see it falling.

_Crunch_.

That is bad. That is very, very bad.

Ty Lee smashes the earthbender's head down as she hears the panic in the other room. She hears a satisfying crunch from him and gets up to see that he is knocked out from the move. Good. Ty Lee runs across the room to her princess.

"Azula, Azula, Azula," Ty Lee says over and over. Tears swell in her eyes as she examines her princess.

"I'm not okay," Azula replies and Ty Lee sighs from relief.

"I can tell," Ty Lee says.

"Why do you look so happy?" Azula hoarsely demands.

"I thought you were dead."

"It takes more than a statue to take me out. You think so lowly of me."

The outside of the room sounds _very _bad. It is absolutely some kind of attack, and, while Ty Lee is certain that the criminals will be taken down by the much more powerful soldiers, but she wouldn't touch the conflict in the ballroom with a ten foot pole.

"Can you walk?" Ty Lee asks and Azula shrugs. Ty Lee takes her hand and helps her to her feet. Azula's knees buckle and Ty Lee catches her with one arm. "Is there another way out?"

"Yeah," Azula says, as if Ty Lee is a complete idiot for asking. "Do you not see the huge windows?"

"Oh." Ty Lee would not have thought of that. Since she is not a lunatic who would suggest breaking windows.

But she takes Azula across the room, which is harder than she thought it would be. Azula leans against the wall as Ty Lee finds a stone tablet that she can lift.

"I hope that isn't too culturally important," Azula says. Ty Lee glares at her in response before walking to the window and trying to smash it. All she gets is a crack. But then she hits it harder and it shatters. _Yes_.

"Come on," Ty Lee says, carefully stepping around broken glass and then helping Azula out onto the patio with her.

Thank Agni they were on the ground floor.

Ty Lee helps Azula through the beautiful garden. She hears sirens in the distance and begins to relax. She is not too relieved, however, about Azula's state. In the sunlight, Ty Lee can see that she really does not look so good.

They reach the emergency guys and Ty Lee has never been more grateful.

* * *

Azula is in the hospital. The attack had more casualties than anyone would be comfortable with, but the terrorists did not get away with it. Unfortunately, the entire city of Caldera is on high alert for any other attacks happening.

Ty Lee sits in her bedroom with Suki.

"I can't believe you were there," Suki says as she drops her sleepover supplies on the carpet. "The whole place burned down. Terrorists. I mean, you're lucky to have escaped."

"Why? Do you wish that I didn't?" Ty Lee snaps. She regrets it. "I just wish I could visit her."

"We're not talking about Azula. We're not talking about her ever again," Suki states firmly and Ty Lee is not arguing.

"This is totally the worst solstice in the history of ever," Ty Lee groans and Suki looks her up and down. "Everything always sucks."

"What happened to your unwavering optimism?" Suki inquires. Ty Lee just pouts.

"I got tired of it," Ty Lee explains and Suki is not arguing.

"Oh. I guess I get it," Suki says quietly.

She does not get it.

* * *

Mai is not the most positive visitor during Azula's hospital stay.

But she is also the only person of whom Azula can bear the company.

"I'm so bored," Azula says. "I want more morphine or something."

Mai sighs. "I could get you a coloring book, if you want."

"Shut up." They're silent for a moment as Mai yawns. Azula whispers, "Would you actually get me a coloring book?"

"Yes. Anything to get out of this room." Mai rises from her chair and leaves.

Leaves Azula alone with her thoughts. And her thoughts linger on Ty Lee relentlessly. It isn't even the almost-sex she thinks about. It is Ty Lee tackling a grown man because Azula was hurt. That makes some part of her burn, but she doesn't know why.

It only gives her more reason to deny Ty Lee.

Someone who would do that for Azula doesn't deserve to die for daring to date her against Ozai's wishes.

* * *

Ty Lee sits at _Sushi King _alone, wadding up her straw wrapper over and over again. The Solstice lights burn brightly in red and gold colors. The storefronts are vibrant and packed with people purchasing last minute presents. It's Ty Lee's favorite time of year, but here she is: _moping_.

She wishes she were brave enough to go to the hospital. That is what she set out to do, after all. But she came here instead, because she is a coward.

Ty Lee can remember slow dancing with that girl, right over there.

She wishes she were brave enough to slow dance with Azula at _Sushi King _at least one last time.


	18. Chapter 18

"Stop moping," Suki snaps. "You know what you are?"

"A heartbroken girl?" Ty Lee airily offers.

She leans against the warm window in she and Suki's alcove, and thinks she looks like a romance novel heroine. Suki thinks she looks like a girl whining about her first intense fling. They stopped coming to this deserted alcove once Ty Lee got pretty and starting dating Azula. It feels strange to be back here so often now that Azula goes to boarding school.

"No. A coward," Suki states.

"I'm not a coward! I just don't want to get arrested! She's _royalty_!" Ty Lee is quiet for a few seconds before melodramatically whispering, "I'm not."

Suki groans. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're in love with her and I think you should go tell her. Go get her like in some stupid chick flick," Suki says. She talks like a true, fierce leader whom cannot be denied. She spends most of that talent on being cheer captain.

"I can't do it," Ty Lee says.

"I'm tired of hearing about this. If you don't go to that hospital, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. And I'll go _crazy _from your melodrama and whining."

Suki's expression then becomes softer and Ty Lee melts.

She completely can't say no now.

* * *

"I'm here to visit Princess Azula," Ty Lee says, leaning over the front desk.

There is a boy working there. He is pretty cute, but Ty Lee has no eyes for anybody but her ex-girlfriend anymore. His eyes, however, are fixated on her, and she thinks she can use that to her advantage. He already looks smitten and so she has no concerns about being denied.

"She's under a lot of protection," says the nervous young man. He looks very panicked, and that worries Ty Lee.

Ty Lee keeps going, however. Nothing can stop her from seeing Azula at least one last time.

"Tell her it's Ty Lee. She's expecting me, but I kind of missed when I was scheduled to see her. I still want to, though, and it's really not my fault that I was late."

"Okay." He believes her so easily. Typical.

He calls and Ty Lee wanders towards the gift shop, drawn to a blue dragon stuffed animal. It is _too cute _and she buys it. How could she resist? She _should _get Azula a gift, anyway, right?

Once she returns to the boy, he explains, "You can go up. The, uh, guard people will lead you up."

Ty Lee turns over her shoulder to the muscly guys waiting by the elevator. She shrugs and follows them.

After an uncomfortable ride, Ty Lee arrives excitedly on the upper level of the hospital and instantly learns that she should have stayed a coward. Her life would be way easier if she just moved on, and she knows that more than ever at the moment. Azula's dad is waiting up there. He probably was the one who answered that stupid boy.

"I see that you are difficult to deter," he says in a voice that makes Ty Lee want to bolt back to the elevator. Maybe she should.

"Well, I…" Ty Lee is at a loss for words for a minute. That does not happen too often. "I felt like a coward for not going to see her. I…" Okay, this is dumb. "I love her."

Ozai examines her. "I think I've already expressed that this is a fling and you don't see it because you are a teenager. She's like a fashion trend to you and you are like a brief distraction to her."

"I can go." Ty Lee blushes and tries to escape.

"But because you saved her, you may see her," Ozai says and Ty Lee eagerly thanks him before walking inside.

Upon entering, she regrets choosing the stuffed animal at the gift shop. The flowers around Azula are glorious. Although, they _do _remind Ty Lee of the flowers that people stack on pyres during funerals.

"Hi," Ty Lee says, waving. She does not know if Azula can see her or not.

"Kiss me." Well, Princess Azula has never been one to waste any time.

Ty Lee skitters over to her, nearly falling over her heels. She only now realizes how foolish she feels for dressing up to go see Azula in the hospital. Maybe it is because Azula has not officially taken her back, or maybe she just wants to look so stunning that Azula cannot resist her. Either way, she feels like an idiot.

But she kisses the princess anyway. Which is stupid. She doubts Azula has broken up with Ummi.

"I couldn't not visit you. I don't know if we'll see each other after this and stuff," Ty Lee says. The silence is uncomfortable, so she shoves the dragon stuffed animal onto Azula's lap. Azula can't help but jump a little at the feeling against her thigh that she needs to ignore.

"Well, I've been about to lose my mind from boredom. I don't mind the break from the monotony," Azula replies and Ty Lee smiles. It is a real smile, and they both wonder if they should feel something about that.

"I'm glad to be that break," Ty Lee says in complete earnest. She has always loved making people happy. She thinks about saying she loved Azula to Ozai, and the fact that she does not think she has ever properly expressed that to the princess. Maybe…

She changes her mind. Azula is not the type who would be swayed by love.

"Good. Entertain me."

* * *

When Ty Lee leaves, she kisses Azula again. She leaves and feels her heart pounding. It moves up into her throat and she goes home in a daze. The world does not feel real outside of that strange hospital room where she and Azula are like they have been, in love, young, no worries, laughing.

None of that really happens anymore.

When she gets home, Azula texts her and she smiles to herself.

Maybe this is a chance to start over.

* * *

Ty Lee is wrong about that.

Azula goes back to school as soon as she heals. It is the worst Solstice in all of history.

The princess promised to stay in touch, but she certainly has not. Ty Lee has been forgotten by her, and she goes to school feeling sick and miserable.

_'She isn't worth this,' _everyone says, but they just totally don't get it.

Ty Lee saved her life, and loves her, and all this stuff that she cannot wrap her head around.

_'Go find someone else,' _everyone says, but they just totally don't get it.

Ty Lee can't bring herself to call Azula, because she is too afraid.

She _is _a coward.

* * *

Late at night three weeks after Azula left, Ty Lee gains the courage to call. She is concerned about it for too long and eventually gives up on worrying. Cowardice again. She needs to stop being cowardly.

"It's ringing!" she screams at Suki, whom could not possibly care less. "It's ringing!"

"I _know_. Phones _ring_," Suki says. She smiles as best she can, and it is not very convincing.

It's ringing. It's ringing. It's…

her voicemail. Fantastic. Ty Lee sighs and sits down on her bed. She ends the call and decides to just text her.

She wants to write poems or at least something that would change her life and love. But she just types: _call me please_. When she hits send, she does not feel so great.

Ty Lee does not think Azula is going to call her.

* * *

The next night, Ty Lee goes out with a group of friends she likes to call her best in the world, but really she does not know who her best friends in the world would be. She dolls herself up in the mirror and decides not to be _cute_. She will be _hot_, and she will meet a _hot _boy, and the rest of her schoolyear will be a perfect romance with him.

She _was _being cowardly by sticking to her supposed love. Ozai was probably right. Azula would be another fad that Ty Lee would get tired of and move on from.

Everyone was right, and they totally understood. Ty Lee was the one who didn't understand. Being hung up on Azula was foolish and immature.

She makes herself look gloriously sexy, and meets her dear friends.

"We're going to drink, and have fun, and you are going to meet someone perfect for you," they assure her.

That sounds really nice to Ty Lee.

* * *

**AN: **This break-up angst ends in under two chapters, I promise. I'm kind of enjoying writing it, to be honest, but it does get tiring and I hope it's not too upsetting or boring. Thank you for reading!


	19. Chapter 19

**AN: **I couldn't help but make a nod to the series and Ty Lee's time in the Boiling Rock. So, this plotline is very inspired by the show in some ways, and inspired by this interpretation of Ty Lee in others. I hope you like this chapter!

* * *

"I can't believe you," mother says, pacing with brief breaks to glare at her daughter mid-lecture. "I never thought in my life I would have to _bail my child out of jail_."

Ty Lee shrugs.

"It's not like I killed somebody or anything," she says yet again.

Mother sighs.

"That's not a good enough excuse, Ty," she growls yet again. "You're beyond grounded. You don't even know the meaning of how grounded you are. I should have left you there so you could think about what you've done."

"I don't really think I did anything wrong," Ty Lee says brightly. She means what she says; it was a ridiculous reason to force her into handcuffs and a holding cell.

"I will let an actual judge be the judge of that," mother says. Her sigh is the most exasperated one that Ty Lee has ever heard. "It doesn't matter if you broke up with your girlfriend. Seeing that princess is only a mess for you, because you've let your feelings get too tangled in what other people think of you. Did you honestly think that breaking the law was a decent way to get attention? Did you?"

"I really didn't think I'd get caught," Ty Lee says in her defense. "I've had a super hard year with Azula and other stuff I guess."

Just Azula.

"You've killed your chances with her by becoming a _criminal_. There is no way a _criminal _will ever date a _princess_. And how is she your excuse? Your actions are your own, even if you're in love with someone who doesn't love you back," mother says in one breath. She stops to gasp.

"She loves me back," Ty Lee snaps. "She's not my problem either."

"Everyone you date is a problem. You don't pick winners."

"That's treason or something!"

"The way she treats and treated you is not the way someone treats people they love. It's always the same with the boyfriends too. Why don't you think you're good enough?"

"You're the one making me feel worthless for getting arrested!"

"Listen to yourself! You just spent half of the night in jail over an ex-girlfriend! You have to go to court!" Mother sighs and sinks into a chair. "You used to be such a good and loving girl who didn't care what other people thought."

"That girl I used to be was super stupid." Ty Lee stands up and runs to her room, slamming the door multiple times before letting it go.

Ty Lee wonders something crazy when she is alone; she wonders if her mom is right about her love for Azula. It was when Ty Lee tried to forget about her that she did the stupid stuff that got her temporarily locked up.

She feels kind of like she betrayed Azula by attempting to forget her in the way she did. She mostly feels kind of like it was Azula's fault they were over, and that maybe Ty Lee didn't pick a winner yet again.

But Ty Lee also really feels like she will never love anybody else the way she loved her high school fling.

* * *

"I told you not to go with those guys," Suki of course says the minute English class ends. "I can't believe you."

Ty Lee snaps, "It was self-defense, and you were drinking and stuff underage too so don't get all preachy."

"I'm not preachy. I'm protective. I think you're too reliant on the people who give you romantic affection and that's why everyone you date or try to sleep with manipulates you."

"I disagree." To tell the truth, Ty Lee wholeheartedly agrees, but she is not going to admit it. She will _never _admit that fact about herself.

"At least you can never get back with her now," Suki says and Ty Lee feels like she just was punched in the gut.

"I hate how mean you are about her."

"She's mean to you. She tormented us for years and I don't think she ever stopped with you. My opinion shouldn't be so surprising to you," Suki says and Ty Lee doesn't know what to do about it. "She's this dark cloud over your life. You always talk about how beautiful life is, and then you only talk about how beautiful she is. You are way too young for a girlfriend to be your life."

Ty Lee pouts and abandons Suki.

Suki hopes at cheerleading practice she can help Ty Lee come around. She is getting very tired of seeing her best friend so hurt. Ty Lee needs to move on, and to move on to someone who cares about her deeply instead of wanting to toy with her and sleep with her.

The cheerleading captain gasps softly when she realizes the perfect plan.

* * *

"Ty Lee, do you want a ride?" Suki offers and her best friend nods. "I know you're grounded for eternity so I'll get you there fast."

Suki considers herself to be brave, but she feels extremely nervous about trying to execute her plan. She really doesn't think of Ty Lee that way, or any girls, but she thinks Ty Lee needs a friend to love her for once. It can't hurt until Ty Lee bandages up the wounds that that horrible bitch left in her.

Suki still feels wracked with nerves as she drives.

She waits for Ty Lee to unfasten her seatbelt before Suki leans over and kisses her on the lips. Ty Lee removes her hand from the door and stares blankly. That startled her. That also felt way too good for her to accept.

"What?" Ty Lee manages to say.

Suki tries to meet her gaze but cannot bring herself to do it. She thinks she is going to hurt Ty Lee if she messes up, but Suki knows she is smart enough to make this work.

"I just needed to do that," Suki says. It is honest, so she does not seem like a liar.

"I didn't…" Ty Lee takes a deep breath.

"I love you like you need to be loved." Also not a lie.

Ty Lee hesitates, but her head is empty. She just feels that rush that she has always been hopelessly addicted to experiencing.

She kisses Suki back.

Ty Lee considers saying sweet, pretty, romantic things, but her mom shouts from the house, "Hurry up, Ty! I'm losing my patience!"

"Bye," Ty Lee whispers. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

Ty Lee leaps from the car and carries her backpack with her.

Suki drives away and Ty Lee feels the confusion hit her.

Maybe this is destiny. She went out to find a way to move on and destroyed her life, but that destruction made Suki realize some kind of love.

It _definitely _is destiny, Ty Lee decides.

But deep down, she still is searching for the chunk of her heart that Azula stole, and she does not know if she will ever find something to replace it.


	20. Chapter 20

**Part Three: Spring**

* * *

Ty Lee wants to talk to a friend about Suki kissing her.

Then she realizes that she does not have any, and she wonders when that happened. She was a social butterfly-bat who soared easily between different people and friendships, but something about her dramatic agony and overwhelming sadness about her ex-girlfriend made her isolate herself.

Maybe there is not any forgiving Azula for this, but, then again, Ty Lee's mom always told her that other people were not responsible for her feelings, and that was giving them too much power. She gave Azula more power than her birthright did, and she wishes she had realized it earlier.

It was beautiful while it lasted. Young love always is, is the thing.

That pretty adolescent romance you see in the movies is a lie. It really never lasts. People move on and they stitch up any wounds in order to reach adulthood. In the movies, love is forever and people stop weddings – so rudely – and you never forget that teenage boy or girl that you dated for such a brief period of time.

Ty Lee no longer believes in that nonsense.

She has become wiser, or so she hopes.

The problem is the weather. Winter is almost over and soon the springtime romance will permeate the air. Ty Lee knows she will fall for someone else as soon as the flowers begin to bloom and the snow becomes rain.

That person might be her best friend, but Ty Lee has no way to get any advice about it. She has no one to tell, no one to point her in the right direction.

Her mom is not even an option, after the entire _jail _ordeal. Ty Lee does not think a conversation about a new girlfriend would go over well now that she a _court date _when most kids are only worrying about a _prom date_.

Suki said prettier words than debate champion sweet-talking Princess Azula ever did. She said, _"I love you like you need to be loved." _

That is romantic, if it was meant to be romantic. Ty Lee does not know.

Ty Lee does not have time to think of a plan for when she sees Suki. The cheer captain gets there too quickly, sitting right down beside Ty Lee in their math class.

"So," Ty Lee says, and she forgets what she was planning on saying after that.

Suki seems to pick up on that. "Yeah."

They sit very quietly for what feels like an eternity.

"Why did you…?"

"Well, I…"

"Uh-huh."

Suki finally remembers how to speak in complete sentences.

"Do you want to go see a movie Friday night? That cute little theatre that serves the cinnamon cupcakes is playing a few decent ones. My friend works there, and I think you'd really like him," she asks, hoping Ty Lee will respond well.

"Him?" Ty Lee frowns.

"Oh, I'm—I'm not trying to set you up with him. It's just a friend who happens to be a boy that I genuinely think you would like, and he can see the movies for free with anybody he wants as long as it isn't sold out or crowded. I don't really want you to…" Suki shuffles around her schoolbooks abruptly and awkwardly. It does not help much.

"I'm good with anything. No romance and nothing scary and nothing sad. But anything other than that."

"That really rules out most options. I think they have some stoner comedy going on, or maybe that action one, but it's probably sold out."

"I can pay for the tickets for the second one. It's the sword-guy one?" Ty Lee inquires.

"The sword-guy?" Suki tries not to laugh. "You mean the Junjie Koji movie. He's not really a sword-guy. He has a variety of other weapons he uses to fight those—I'm not sure this time; there are a thousand of those slash-'em-ups with him and there are a lot of different bad guys."

"He's the spy!" Ty Lee exclaims, thrilled. Suki wonders how someone so awful got her clutches around this sweet girl.

"Yes. The very famous one who gets referenced way too often for you to not know about," Suki says, trying not to sound too different. This love act has to go slowly to be believable.

"I know who Junjie Koji is," Ty Lee says.

"Right. I didn't mean to imply anything about you not knowing or anything. I just wasn't sure." That does not help and Suki knows it.

"You didn't. I think it would be fun. It's a… date." Ty Lee feels scared to say the last word. She never thought she could _ever _love again for a thousand years, or the rest of her life.

"Great." Suki smiles. It is genuine. She may not be genuinely interested in her best friend, but she genuinely wants her to be happy and get over that awful girl.

It is a miniscule sacrifice.

* * *

"I know I'm grounded for forever," Ty Lee says.

"I already don't like where this is going," her mom interrupts, crossing her arms. She looks like she is scolding a small child, not talking to her nearly-an-adult daughter.

"Suki asked me to see a movie on Friday. I'm pretty sure she just wants to make me get over Azula."

Her mother softens when she hears about Suki. She didn't like Azula, but she has always like Ty Lee's best friend. It probably has something to do with the fact that Suki stuck by her when she was an outcast, and Azula tormented her while she was an outcast.

"That motive is more than fair," her mom relents. "You can see the movie, but you better be home on time, and you better behave, and I better get pictures of you so I know you're where you say you are."

"I can do that." Ty Lee smiles brighter than she has in months.

"Good." Her mother grabs her arm as she starts to walk away. "You still are grounded for forever, regardless of this."

"I figured."

* * *

A long way away, Azula is under scrutiny and she dislikes it.

She cannot hide the fact that she has not been the same after leaving the hospital and returning to school. Her last moments in Caldera were clouded by strange emotions that she does not fully understand.

Mostly, she does not understand why when she kisses her girlfriend she sees Ty Lee.

Ty Lee should have been a fleeting romance, but she wasn't. She _wasn't _and _isn't _and Azula does not know why she cannot forget her. It should have been easy to shake off. They would part ways after high school and try to keep in contact before leaving each other's lives forever.

Maybe that would not have happened. Maybe it would have become something more, and Azula spends too much time wondering what her life would be like if nothing had gotten in the way of that one, shallow relationship.

She cannot talk about it, and that only makes her think about it more.

The campus grounds are in bloom at last. Despite that, Azula feels trapped in an endless winter. She is stuck on a single moment in her life and she cannot get it out of her head.

* * *

"Who is she?" Ummi asks Azula.

Azula shrugs. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"You think about a girl. She's not me."

"I _do not_. It is absurd of you to accuse me of such a thing."

"You don't have to be so defensive. I'm okay with it. I…" Ummi frowns. "There was somebody before you I really loved so much. My parents sent me away and he said he couldn't live with himself if he never saw my face again."

"How long ago was that?"

"Three years. He never did see my face again and I don't know if he ended up caring. When he tried to get me back, I was too scared. I just think about it sometimes, and I wonder why I wasn't brave enough. I don't want to offend you or…"

"No. This relationship was born of extreme parental interference. Are you suggesting I make some kind of kneejerk decision and elope with a shallow airhead who saved my life."

"Yes."

"It's for her own good. I got one person killed already."

"You what?"

"My father had a girl killed over me. I'm essentially returning the favor by saving her life too."

"That must have been…" Ummi does not have words for it, so she does not try to say any.

"In the past and forgettable."

"It doesn't sound like you forgot."

"I said forgettable, not forgotten."

"Which one is your relationship with this new girl?"

Azula has to think about it for a moment, and then she has to think about whether she should lie or not. She decides to be honest for once.

"Neither," she whispers.


	21. Chapter 21

Ty Lee does not know how to best get ready for her date with Suki.

She cannot miss the pictures of them on her walls. They go all the way back to when they were eight years old and at a Halloween party. They both were pirates—odd as it may be—plush reptile birds and all. They get older. Suki is way prettier than Ty Lee when they're in middle school. But once they are fourteen, Ty Lee is obsessed with her appearance and Suki is obsessed with being successful.

Azula is absent in those photographs.

For some reason, being friends with Suki for so long makes it _harder_. How do you go from friends to lovers at the drop of a hat?

Ty Lee wonders what matters most, or how she should look. Should she be someone totally different appearance-wise, to make it less awkward? Or should she be who she always has been, because they have been at each other's back for ages.

She decides to look like herself.

It is not how she looked when she was with Azula.

* * *

"These are extremely overpriced," Ty Lee says, popping two fire gummies in her mouth at once. She does not think she has ever lost money that quickly. "I mean, I'm confused by it, right?"

"That's why I bring nothing but my own water," Suki says.

Ty Lee pretends to gag. "That's gross. You should be a junkie for junk food like me."

She and her date stand in the cutest movie theater in Caldera. It is a little one that often has about five people in the whole place. The only way it keeps running is because it's a drug front; or so the rumors claim.

Ty Lee loves the pretty walls and the smell of treats and the feel of the ticket shoved in her bra. Suki balances one bucket of fire flakes under her right arm, and holds her pop in her other hand. Ty Lee has her own and is recklessly wobbling with it.

"They are," Suki says. She looks uncomfortable, and Ty Lee does not blame her. This first date must be really scary; it's scary for Ty Lee. "So, into the movie we go?"

"Yup!" Ty Lee says, walking down the dark hallway and finding the right neon sign. They enter the shadowy room and see that it's just them in the theater.

It is super awesome. Well, maybe it is a little intimidating too, but she and Suki find great seats right in the middle and watch the previews. They do not have too much to say to each other.

Are they really meant to be together? Are they a decent couple?

Ty Lee does not know.

* * *

"Can I kiss you?" Ty Lee asks in the dark theater. It is not something she has ever done before, but she has not been alone here before either.

Suki turns to look at her. She is a silhouette, save for the glint of her eyes in the light. The loud gunshots and rocks breaking in the background are forgotten as Suki leans in and kisses Ty Lee on the lips.

It feels weird, and maybe wrong to both of them.

But they are on a date, and they are kissing, and there is nothing weird about it.

There is, however, no overpowering warmth and safety. Nothing sexy. Nothing that makes her crave a thousand more.

It's nice.

But it's nothing more than nice.

* * *

Suki and Ty Lee walk out of the theater into the significantly colder air.

The conversation is the best Ty Lee has had in a long time. It makes her remember why she was so excited for this date, and how a kiss doesn't mean everything. Ty Lee always did root for the neglected best friend in the romance book love triangles. The best friend never won over the dangerous bad boy, but Ty Lee always knew that the former was way better for the protagonist than the latter.

They don't care about the other pedestrians; they walk side by side whether the world likes it or not. Ty Lee notices it; Suki is too absorbed in their conversation.

Ty Lee does not think she deserves to date someone like her best friend.

"Okay, I've said enough about the sexism in that movie. Do you want to drive out to the water? I don't mean the pier; I mean the rocks," Suki says, and Ty Lee's eyes light up. She has not been the cliffs and flora outside of the caldera in years.

"That sounds great!" Ty Lee chirps, nearly racing to Suki's car.

They drive together through the glimmering but grungy streets. The world passes by like a blur and Ty Lee has to turn on the radio to make the silence less awkward.

She remembers when Suki first started driving. It was long before Ty Lee did, despite their shared school grade. Suki took Ty Lee to Karate and then on her errands and then to a movie that they didn't finish watching.

At the end of the night, they slept in the same basement that Ty Lee put gold body glitter on Azula in.

Okay, Ty Lee has lost track of how many times she has thought about her ex-girlfriend during this date. That reflects poorly on her, not the beautiful girl driving the car. Guilt gnaws at her relentlessly.

When they reach the water, it is so perfectly calm.

The waves still crash against the rocks, but it's not as loud as Ty Lee remembers it being. Flora has overgrown the abandoned docks below. After the Fifty-Year War, they didn't need as many ships, and so the marinas furthest from the city fell into disrepair.

"Do you wanna sit and talk like old times?" Suki offers.

Ty Lee stares at her for a minute. She wonders if she can even talk to someone who feels so much more like a friend than a love. Someone Ty Lee totally doesn't deserve, because even if Suki thinks Ty Lee deserves to be loved like Suki loved her then…

Then Suki is dead wrong.

"I wanna swim." Ty Lee takes off her clothes, since that fixes multiple issues in her life, and runs across the decayed wood.

She avoids a splinter or ten, and she dives into the ice cold water.

It shocks her back into reality.

That is just what she needed.

* * *

That night, Ty Lee goes to sleep thinking about Suki but dreams about blue fire. The crackling flames are not violent or destructive or painful; they are beautiful and serene. She sits in the middle of it, calm, peaceful, confused by the weird dancing images and thoughts in her head that she does not understand, but she is unafraid.

A figure approaches and Ty Lee looks up from the fire to see Princess Azula. She looks so beautiful in a gorgeous red dress. It looks strange, regal, intoxicating. Ty Lee wants to touch the dress more than she wants to touch the princess.

Azula walks through the fire, of course unscathed, and she reaches out to Ty Lee. She tips her chin up and leans down to kiss her on the lips. Azula falls on top of her and Ty Lee lies there inhaling smoke and inhaling perfume and inhaling heated perfection.

As Azula's lips rub against her skin, her fingertips move down, and Ty Lee bucks her hips before falling. She is falling and falling and falling.

She wakes up with a jolt. It feels like the aftermath of a nightmare even thought it was a normal dream. Ty Lee turns on the light as fast as she can. She feels so… empty.

When she picks up her phone, she almost drops it.

She has a text from the subject of her dream.

It is not as eloquent as Azula's messages usually are.

But 'Hi' somehow rattles Ty Lee more than a speech ever could.


	22. Chapter 22

Panic is too weak a word to describe Ty Lee's current state.

'Hi,' she had texted. _Hi_. What does 'hi' mean? What kind of 'hi' is it?

Ty Lee would trade her soul to know.

She types up a thousand responses. Some are long, some are one sentence, some borrowed from cheesy romance novels, others angry clichés, and all of them way too desperate. Ty Lee needs to perfect response, and she does not have that.

On her date with Suki, she felt so happy. She was not electrified or charmed out of her panties, but she felt happier than she had in a long time. Euphoric, even. Maybe that free and content feeling is better than the fiery thrill she feels with the princess. Those sensations are butterflies of two different breeds.

Finally, Ty Lee finds the perfect response.

'Hi'

Ty Lee curls up into a ball on her bed. She is wracked with anxiety as she waits for a reply. Her heart beats like a hammer. At long last, her phone buzzes and she sits straight up.

'I'm coming home for break next weekend.'

It is not the same spring break that Ty Lee has, but that does not matter. Does it matter? She does not know. Ty Lee tries another thousand replies and deletes all of them.

'How fun! Do you have plans?'

That one is good. Ty Lee hopes that one is good, at least.

'Not as of now.'

Azula is even harder to read in a text, and Ty Lee has spent way too much time in her life trying to figure her ex-girlfriend out. Princess Azula makes very little sense unless she is speaking directly to you – then she seems to be telling the only truth in the universe.

Ty Lee thinks her heart could be seen through her chest. She feels like this a test but she does not know. She never was good at tests or quizzes or love. Nothing is as easy as it seems in the movies.

'I miss you,' Ty Lee dares to type.

Azula does not reply for eons and Ty Lee comes close to puking. She waits, trembling and halfheartedly watching television, until her ex at last answers.

'I miss you too, but that doesn't change anything. We have to be over. I shouldn't be talking to you.'

Ty Lee throws her phone at the wall. It falls short, depriving Ty Lee of a satisfying _thud_, and crash lands in her laundry hamper. She sighs and shakes her head, angry at herself. Why does Azula do this? Why does Ty Lee do this? Why can they never move on?

When Ty Lee's phone lights up again, she ignores it and goes to sleep.

* * *

Ty Lee wakes up and cannot decide what to do about the new message on her phone. She has two days isolated from school and the real world; she happens to be grounded for eternity. How will she survive them if she does not know what Azula said?

She could ignore it, but then she would be nervous all weekend. She could look, but then she would be miserable all weekend. No matter what, Ty Lee loses.

Ty Lee decides to check the message.

'I'm sorry.'

Ty Lee does a double take when she sees the text. Azula does not apologize. She _never _does. Maybe it is a lazy apology tacked on for politeness, but maybe Azula really means it. If Azula really _means _an apology, then Ty Lee just does not know.

She wishes she knew why Azula is so afraid of them being together. Azula would not have texted unless she was thinking about Ty Lee. Why will the princess not just be open about their relationship and all that goes with it?

The apology just makes everything more confusing.

* * *

"What's wrong?" asks Suki before math class. She looks at Ty Lee with such genuine compassion in her eyes that it is hard to hide her torturous weekend.

The growing love for her best friend just makes everything more confusing too.

"Nothing," Ty Lee says, playing with her pink pen and praying that Suki will not inquire further.

"You're not a good liar," Suki says. "You're good at other things, though."

Ty Lee rubs her face. This is not the most comforting conversation she has ever had in her life. In fact, it makes everything feel worse, because Suki is evidently better for her, but she does not know how to erase her feelings for that awful princess.

"I got a text Friday night after our date," Ty Lee admits. "I've been worried about it all weekend."

Suki purses her lips, dumbstruck for a moment. She did not prepare for this.

"Is that why you didn't respond to me for two days? I'm glad that date wasn't _that _bad. Was it?" Suki asks. Ty Lee finally gathers the courage to make eye contact.

"It was the best date of my life," Ty Lee lies. She does not know if Suki believes her or not, but it was a _wonderful _date, and Ty Lee means that much. "I didn't reply because I was trying to ignore my message app. I just watched TV and slept. And did my punishment chores."

Punishment chores. As if a looming court date were not bad enough.

"Who texted you?" Suki asks, although she clearly already knows. How could she not know? It does not take a genius to guess.

Under her breath, Ty Lee replies, "Azula."

"Right," Suki says. "Should I be worried?"

Suki tries to be playful, but her concern is impossible to hide. Ty Lee can tell she is hurting the person she loves most in this world and it kills her. _Kills her_.

"No. I want to forget her. Help me forget her forever."

Ty Lee wishes she had more confidence in that assertion.

* * *

Thankfully, Ty Lee's mom lets Ty Lee hang out with Suki after school for the week. It is brief and monitored, but that is better than nothing. Her mother seems to think that Suki is much better for her than Azula is. But… what if she isn't? What if Ty Lee will never feel that electricity with Suki or anyone else?

Being attached to Suki's hip _does _remind her of the fun they had together for years. Before Ty Lee got pretty and slept with a princess. Everything kind of died around then, but maybe it can be resurrected.

They sit in a comic book store; it is the one they used to hang out at long, long ago. Ty Lee has just finished taking her proof picture for her mom, and they lean back amongst the merchandise.

Ty Lee's lips graze against Suki's, but before she can complete the kiss, a comic cover catches her eye.

It is a propaganda one. Those are always cool, if a bit too nationalistic.

This one has Azula on it.

Ty Lee does not think she will ever escape.

She does not know if she _wants _to escape.


	23. Chapter 23

The rest of the week goes by like a blur.

On Friday night, Ty Lee sits with her essay about the Liberation of Ba Sing Se. She has succeeded at writing her name on the paper, and has been spending the past thirty minutes trying to think up a decent title. The inspiration hits her.

She calls it, "The Liberation of Ba Sing Se," and feels rather proud of that.

Ty Lee stares at the almost blank document for another several minutes before her phone buzzes. She tries to resist the urge to answer it, but she does not have that kind of willpower.

'Hi,' texts Princess Azula of the Fire Nation.

Ty Lee wishes this were not starting again. Why is it starting again? Why is it never over? It is never over with them and Ty Lee does not know if that is bad or good. Most people would say it is bad, but Ty Lee has seen a lot of romance movies, and she thinks the protagonists always feel kind of like this. They must. They must.

'Hi. Are you home?' Ty Lee types.

'Yes. Of course, I would like you to meet me.'

'Where?'

'Sushi King.'

Ty Lee hesitates. The memories of her time in that restaurant flood her head. They all are so beautiful that she cannot resist.

'When?' she asks, smiling to herself.

* * *

Ty Lee debates what kind of jacket she needs. She wears her cutest outfit and she does not want to cover it up, but her lighter coat is too pink when she already is decked out in her favorite color. She has numerous other sweaters, but none of them are perfect enough.

It feels ridiculous to crave perfection tonight, but she wants it anyway. Her relationship is over, and she has a new one that makes her happy. This is just a _friends _visit, completely platonic, at a restaurant that could not be more romantic.

She did tell her mom she was meeting Suki. Maybe she should not dress up so much; it could arouse suspicion.

It is too late for that, she decides.

Ty Lee sighs and grabs the larger coat. It might get cold tonight anyway. Spring has been shy in the Fire Nation this year.

She seizes her purse and dashes out of the door.

* * *

Ty Lee arrives at Sushi King and at first thinks she has been stood up.

She discovers that she has not been when she looks at the corner. Azula is not seated at their favorite table, the one that always was saved for them. The princess is in the shadows, because Ty Lee is stupid and Azula is trying to hide them.

Again, Ty Lee knows she is stupid when she disregards sanity and walks to go sit across from her _platonic _date.

"Hi," says Azula. Ty Lee heard the text in exactly that voice. Azula is one of those people who types like she talks; Ty Lee has always liked that.

"Hi." Ty Lee sits down and sets her purse on her lap. Her fingers tremble and she tries to make them stop to no avail. "You look good."

"So do you," Azula replies. Her tone makes Ty Lee wonder if it is just courtesy. No, Ty Lee looks _incredible _and even Princess Azula would notice that.

Azula looks shaken. Ty Lee doubts it is about this date. It is something else that has left the usually stony princess uneasy and jittery. Her eyes have _hurt _somewhere deep inside of them, and Ty Lee wants to ask, or kiss it better, but she knows how foolish those actions would be.

Ty Lee decides to ignore her curiosity about the princess's anxious state.

"This is awkward," Ty Lee says even though it does not need to be said.

"It is," Azula agrees coldly. Ty Lee thinks this might have been a mistake. Azula thinks that too. Neither says so, and so the date continues.

"So… I guess we'll order the same thing as always," Ty Lee says, smiling. Her lips struggle to stretch for some reason.

"Yes," Azula replies.

The air between them is colder than the air outside.

* * *

"I have somebody new," Ty Lee says after some small talk that was not too uncomfortable. "And she's really great."

"How nice for you," Azula replies. Her eyes burn and flicker and flare like a star going supernova. Ty Lee hates to admit how much she likes that response. "I suppose this must be confirmation that everything has ended."

Azula's fingers twitch towards her… backpack? She wears such perfect dinner clothes, but instead of a fashionable purse, has a far larger bag. Ty Lee wonders where she came from to be carrying that.

"Don't leave," Ty Lee says. That makes Azula glare. "Please, don't leave, princess. Please."

Azula sets her hands on the table. Ty Lee feels a soft relief.

They sit in silence briefly. Azula tires of it first.

"We should just be grateful that our relationship ended before anything got out of hand," she purrs, making something awful and bitter sound exceptionally beautiful. Ty Lee's eyes narrow as Azula speaks. "Breaking up in the press, or having a harsher ending than ours, or even having everyone at school talk about it would be terrible. We dodged a boulder."

"I…" Ty Lee has never felt so enraged. She did not know that anger could be this overpowering until right now. "I…"

She feels so livid that she cannot speak or think. Ty Lee can barely breathe. Azula can make people feel how she wants them to feel, and it used to be good. It is not anymore. Ty Lee wants to say, "_Why do you like to hurt me?" _but the princess scares her too much.

"Yes?" Azula leans in, waiting for an answer.

"I have to go," Ty Lee manages to say. She tosses down her scarlet napkin and leaves the restaurant. Royalty can pay a bill on her own just fine.

The cold air smells like springtime, but it stings her sweaty skin like winter wind would. She feels so tired of crying, crying all of the time. Ty Lee never cried, even during the hardest days of her life; she smiled every single day. All of her tears are over one person.

Where is her Prince Charming? Her Princess Charming isn't worth her time.

Ty Lee has walked halfway down the street when she thinks she hears her name. She does a double take and then turns around.

"Wait!" shouts a girl who never has looked _desperate_.

"Why?" Ty Lee yells back, not giving a damn about a single pedestrian. They might be staring, but to her, they might as well not exist.

"Just wait," Azula says, holding her heels in her hand as she strides barefoot down the coarse sidewalk. "I say what I have to say to get what I want."

"So, you want to break up? You're following me to tell me that again."

"No. I am saying this because I want you. When I recited what I certainly rehearsed in my bedroom, it was to remove myself from a situation I should have never been in. This all went downhill the moment you slept over at my house for the first time."

"I noticed."

"A princess shouldn't date someone whose yearbook photo is a mugshot, but I don't think I care as much as my father would. If he doesn't like this, he… can't really stop me," Azula says, giving Ty Lee a piercing headache. "He won't let us happen, but I'm a little tired of listening to him. I want you to get on a train with me in twenty minutes."

"I'd miss school, and my court date. I can't miss a court date."

Azula swallows a few words and says instead, "I will give you a royal pardon, only if you come with me."

Her eyes glitter in the streetlamps and Ty Lee sighs. This is not an easy decision, even though it should be. It is certainly not one Ty Lee should be making on the spot in the middle of a city block.

"You were leaving tonight anyway," Ty Lee realizes. The backpack dawns on her, the look in Azula's eyes. Something happened earlier tonight, or today, or even yesterday. Ty Lee wants to know what, but Azula does not look like she is talking yet.

"Yes," Azula states, looking offended. "You are _such _a genius. I was trying to decide if I wanted you to come or not."

That much appears to be true.

"And you want me to come with you," Ty Lee sounds out slowly.

What happened? What happened to spark this? Azula would never give up her crown or her daddy or her perfect life unless it was much more than a little relationship.

Ty Lee is right about that, but Azula will not tell her. Not yet, maybe not ever.

"Yes," Azula orders. "Make your choice."


	24. Chapter 24

On a racing crimson train, Azula slides the door of the compartment shut, sealing herself and her girlfriend inside. She draws the curtain on the window, as if someone could see them as they speed through the rural Fire Nation. Ty Lee sits silently and patiently like an obedient subject, which Princess Azula appreciates and expects.

"You made a good choice," Azula airily says, turning to Ty Lee. The acrobat smiles warmly at her, not sure if Azula is right about that. All the same, her former girlfriend makes her feel like running off together is the best thing in the universe. "We both did."

"I don't have any of my stuff," nervously comments Ty Lee, turning to Azula. She feels naked without her possessions; they have always been the most important thing in her life.

"We'll buy you new clothes and make-up and whatever it is you so desperately need. We may be runaways, but I have fairly endless fortune," Azula replies, crossing her legs and smirking. She looks confident for the first time tonight, and not as shaken as she was before.

"Will I get arrested?" Ty Lee whispers, leaning forward.

"No." Azula waves. "We will be sipping champagne and laughing as they scour the countryside looking for us. At least, that is how I envision it, and I make _all_ of my fantasies into reality."

Ty Lee's heart melts at those dreamy words. "That does sound romantic. I'm kind of running from the law, though, if we think about it and—"

"Ty Lee, I _am _the law," Azula says, laughing at her love's nerves. "You're safe as long as you're with me. I promise."

"And if your dad finds us?" Ty Lee asks, her eyes widening as she envisions Ozai's face. "Am I still safe with you then?"

"Of course," Azula purrs, giving Ty Lee a warm, reassuring smile. It looks _wrong _on her face. So much of her is off; Ty Lee feels even more uneasy now. "Don't you trust me?"

Against better judgment, Ty Lee replies, "Yes. Yes, yes, yes, I do, princess, I do."

Azula leans across the compartment and kisses Ty Lee. The acrobat feels fireworks going off and loses feeling in her legs. No one has ever kissed her the way Azula does.

"Good. You should," Azula fiercely says, leaning back. "Now I am going to sleep, and you will watch over me to make sure nothing happens. That is your one job."

"Of course I will, but, you're the best firebender ever. Can't you protect yourself?" Ty Lee inquires, wondering if this has anything to do with how strangely Azula was behaving at their dinner.

"Don't question me," Azula sweetly replies, lying down.

Ty Lee nods and watches the princess close her eyes. She wrings her hands and tries to keep control of her breath. When her phone dings, she jumps and shrieks. Azula opens her eyes and then closes them again. She looks more exhausted than Ty Lee has ever seen her.

Slowly, Ty Lee pulls her phone out of her pocket. She sees a text from Suki.

_Where are you?_

Ty Lee does not know how to respond to such a jarring message. She just knows she feels a sudden pain in her stomach and lightness in her head. It makes her feel like a terrible person to run off with one girl and leave behind another. Suki loves her more than Azula loves her, but Ty Lee loves Azula more than she loves Suki.

It is super complicated.

"Do not text anyone. Or call," Azula slurs while half-asleep, prompting Ty Lee to drop her phone in shock. "You are not to contact a single person while we are on the run. I should be enough for you."

"You're enough for me," Ty Lee says instantly and passionately. "I was just checking."

"And stay just checking. Now, can I go to sleep or are you going to call the police on me?" Azula's lips curl into a wicked smile.

"You can… sleep if you want to sleep, of course, princess."

* * *

Ty Lee does not know where her and Azula's stop is, and Azula has yet to wake up. The unknown makes Ty Lee tense, but every set of footsteps going down that corridor sends her into a tizzy. She does not think she can handle being a fugitive, and she has only been one for two hours.

Over a loudspeaker, the conductor announces a stop at a town Ty Lee has never heard of, and Azula at last opens her eyes and sits up.

"That's us," Azula declares, sitting up and seizing her backpack.

"What's in Hisoka?" Ty Lee asks as she stands. "I've never even heard of it."

"I just looked it up the other day while planning my escape. It seemed like nowheresville and, therefore, a good place to start again," Azula explains. Ty Lee stares at her feet; she does not want to let Azula see how scared she is. She never thought that she would run away.

"Well, let's go and get started. A new life. Yay!" Ty Lee grins.

Azula opens the compartment door.

* * *

Hisoka is far, far from the busiest town on the planet. Ty Lee does not know if this is the best place in the world to hide. She thinks that she and Azula could blend in more easily in a big city. If anyone here recognizes the princess, they both are doomed. Ty Lee in particular will probably be executed for kidnapping Fire Nation royalty.

Nothing Azula could say or do would prevent Ty Lee from being charged with that crime. Ty Lee _knows _that Ozai would push for it. He would not be able to suffer the embarrassment of his daughter running away, so he would blame Ty Lee. While Ty Lee never got to know the Fire Lord closely, she can easily predict his actions in this circumstance.

"Maybe we should go to the Earth Kingdom," Ty Lee hopefully suggests as Azula walks into the deserted train station. "That would be really fun."

"Ty Lee, I am in charge of this exodus. I will decide where we go and you will comply," Azula brusquely orders, her golden eyes flash and Ty Lee tries not to panic. She locates the door and leads Ty Lee out into the town's streets. It is so _quiet_.

"Do you know someone here or are we just super screwed?" Ty Lee cannot help but inquire. It may anger the princess, but she needs to alleviate her concerns. She probably should not have agreed to go with Princess Azula, but it is impossible to say no to such a beautiful and persuasive girl.

Ty Lee's phone dings again. She eyes it and sees her mother's frantic text. _WHERE ARE YOU? I AM ABOUT TO CALL POLICE._

"Azula, I think I need to call my mom," Ty Lee says, gently grabbing the princess's arm. Azula spins around and glares daggers.

"Why?" spits the heir to the Fire Nation throne.

"She's worried. She'll call the police. I don't know what I'll tell her, but we're in trouble if they find us. Your dad is probably already looking for you. If they find out we're both gone…" Ty Lee bites back tears. She has never been so scared before in her life.

"Let her fret. She has done nothing for you," Azula says, holding out her hand. Ty Lee stares at it blankly, confused. "Give me your phone. I don't trust you with it. Especially since you have a little a girlfriend who kept you warm for me."

Ty Lee gapes. "You—you know about me and Suki?"

Azula laughs in response.

"Of course I do. I know everything. Now give me your phone," Azula enunciates every single word, keeping her eyes locked with Ty Lee's the whole time. Hastily, the young noblewoman sets her cellphone in Azula's palm. The princess shoves it into her backpack and Ty Lee hangs her head.

This is a bad idea. This has been a bad idea from the start and Ty Lee can never forgive herself.

* * *

Miles away and in a Caldera living room, Suki sits across from Ty Lee's mother. Their somber expressions nearly match. Ty Lee's absence has wracked both of their nerves.

"I'll find her," Suki says, setting her hands on the middle aged woman's. "I know she went to meet Princess Azula. She told me. I'll find them both, and bring her home."

"That princess never has been a good influence, despite what the propaganda insists," softly says the sad mother.

"I know," Suki says, her stomach twitching from a humorless laugh. "I know, and I give you my word that she'll be home before the end of the week."

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it."


	25. Chapter 25

Ty Lee reaches down and gently shakes Azula to wake her.

When the princess does, she calls out some girl's name and clings to Ty Lee's arms so fiercely that she leaves red marks.

"It's me. It's me, Ty Lee," she says, as Azula does not seem to notice at first.

They are in a motel in Hisoka. Azula has a significant amount of cash with her, which makes sense, since it would be incredibly easy for the Fire Lord himself to track credit cards. It took up the most space in her backpack, which looks like it was packed hastily. She must have withdrawn the cash on her way to Sushi King.

"I know," Azula whispers, lying back down. She stares at the ceiling and Ty Lee sees that her eyes are damp. Azula does not cry; Ty Lee has never seen her cry, at least. "Go to the vending machine and find me something to eat. And drink. Don't forget the drink. No, scratch the food. Just get me something to drink."

Ty Lee nods and gets up. She pulls a hoodie over her pajamas, grabs the key, grabs a few dollars, and walks out into the warm night. Slowly, cautiously, she walks through the shadows and to the vending machine. She finds Azula's favorite and hers, and buys them. The machine groans as it dispenses the drinks.

She walks back to their room, hyper-aware of her surroundings. Something inside of her makes her feel like she is being watched. Is she being watched? Ozai would pursue his daughter to the ends of the Earth. He would never let her run away from home, especially when the crown is hers alone to inherit.

Azula has him. Maybe Ty Lee has Suki, but she probably has given up everyone in her life in favor of the girl sitting with the television on. Azula keeps clicking the remote, trying to get away from the broadcasts about her disappearance.

Not a disappearance. A kidnapping.

"You left a note?" Ty Lee asks, her eyes widening. She quickly shuts the door and sets the bottled iced teas down on the grimy table. "You faked your own kidnapping?"

Azula shakes her head.

"No. _He _left a note. It would destroy his political reputation if I ran away. Saying that I was kidnapped is the only way to save himself," Azula explains. She sounds _hollow _and Ty Lee wonders if it has anything to do with the nightmare.

She removes the hoodie and Azula sees the marks on her skin. If the princess cares, she does not say anything. Ty Lee would hazard to guess that Azula is ashamed that she is human enough to have bad dreams. _Really _bad dreams, judging by that one.

"Are you okay?" Ty Lee asks and, predictably, Azula nods.

Azula turns off the television and her gaze rises to meet Ty Lee's. She beckons for her dearest girlfriend to cross the room. Ty Lee walks to her as if hypnotized. She notices Azula trembling, notices that perhaps her perfect princess is breaking into pieces.

She leans down to give her a soft, open mouthed kiss. Azula stands and rests her hands on Ty Lee's waist. Ty Lee cautiously steps back and slides the straps of her nightgown sideways so that it falls to the floor. Azula returns the favor, easing those terrycloth shorts down until they collapse to a heap around Ty Lee's feet. Underwear next, now hastily, exchanging frantic kisses.

Azula pulls Ty Lee against her and they kiss. She kind of wishes her girlfriend tasted like ring pops again, but dismisses that thought.

While Azula is feverish, the motion makes Ty Lee shiver. Ty Lee's hands slide down to squeeze her hips, lifting her up so she can wrap her legs around her. Azula's eyes close, her mouth overwhelmed by Ty Lee's, but she is aware as her girlfriend shifts them and her back hits the bed. The princess lets her feet fall to the bed and Ty Lee kisses her way down, over her chin and neck, until her mouth reaches her chest. She sucks and licks and the princess really cannot take it anymore.

Azula's voice seems to have a mind of its own as it whispers, "I want you."

Ty Lee moans softly. Azula is quite used to her words having power, but not like this.

"I want you too," whispers Ty Lee.

"Is this real?" asks Azula. It is not a romantic rhetorical question; she seems to genuinely not know.

Ty Lee is worried about her. If Ty Lee were smarter or had more sense or more self-control she would stop and try to find out what happened to her princess. But she is selfish tonight and cannot help herself.

"Yes," Ty Lee breathes. "It's real."

Azula runs her hands down over her perfectly smooth back.

Ty Lee softly kisses Azula's cheekbone. She feels as if the princess is fragile for a few seconds, which is something she doubts anyone has ever thought. Maybe Ozai did, or Azula's mother before her death, but Ty Lee cannot imagine anyone ever thought of Azula as _fragile_.

She is. She trembles. She looks sick. She looks wan.

Her bones stick out just a little bit, something Ty Lee did not notice until they were naked.

Ty Lee kisses the tip of her nose, then her lips.

Azula bends her legs and draws them up, wrapping them around her. Ty Lee gives each of her breasts a little suckling kiss before sliding down between her legs. They flinch together, which never has happened before. Ty Lee should probably figure out what's wrong instead of this, but she cannot imagine anyone ever thought of her as _sensible_.

Ty Lee breaks free slightly and sits between Azula's legs, pulling them apart by the knees. Ty Lee runs her hands along Azula's thighs, smiling warmly at her. Azula does not return the grin, but she never has.

And Ty Lee kisses Azula's inner thighs while massaging around her hips. By the time she reaches her center, it's aching for attention.

Her lips open and close, her tongue swirls around, Azula pushes lightly against her, trying to deepen the feeling. She really has felt nothing for some time before this moment.

Ty Lee slides her tongue into her then.

For long, long moments Azula can only manage to take very shallow breaths and her eyes fall shut. She feels a wildfire inside of her and forgets the parts of the world that are not on fire.

She sucks in a short breath and sighs as her climax crashes over her.

* * *

Ty Lee wonders if she should say something.

She really does, because she really should.

Asking and getting a mean retort would be better than not asking at all.

Above all else, it would be brave, but Ty Lee is not brave.

Azula doesn't seem to be either anymore.


	26. Chapter 26

"Ty Lee," whispers Azula after a week of being fugitives. They sit in another motel in another small, dried up town. They are in love and Azula is insane and Ty Lee is probably crazy too for following this shattered girl to the ends of the Earth. "I want you to marry me."

Azula presses a ring into Ty Lee's palm and Ty Lee holds onto it tightly. She is afraid to look at it, but she does. It could not be more beautiful.

The legal age of marriage in the Fire Nation is sixteen, but no one does that unless they are knocked up. Everyone waits until after they graduate, or at least until they meet someone better while away at college.

"We're seventeen. Maybe we shouldn't," Ty Lee whispers like an idiot. This is what she wants with all of her heart. "But I'd absolutely love to make this huge mistake with you."

"We are already on the lam and I honestly think we cannot do anything worse," Azula says, sitting back down on the motel bed. "I guess I am the spontaneous one now."

"You're the romantic one too," Ty Lee says quietly.

She kisses Azula.

Ty Lee does not know that it will be their last true day together.

* * *

**Part Four: Summer**

* * *

Three months later, Ty Lee finds out that Azula is back when she reads it in a tabloid. She sees Azula's picture everywhere. The wild hypotheses about what happened to the princess fly around. They permeate the air as Ty Lee tries to contain her pain.

It is the summer after junior year and Ty Lee buys a bridal magazine and the one with the most attractive picture of Azula on it. This could be called masochism. No, this _definitely _is masochism.

She walks home in a daze. She is grateful her mom and dad are not home, because they would try to _talk _to her about the princess. Azula has the freedom to go up to her room and throw the magazines onto her bed. She digs around in her dresser and picks up the box beneath her socks and panties.

When she opens it, she sees a ring with a gigantic ruby and a beautiful platinum band.

It could have been hers. While it does technically belong to her, it will never be her engagement ring. She could have been a princess, but, more importantly, she could have had her princess forever and ever. Instead, this ring is just a memento that reminds her of what could have been, in a better world.

She sets it down and opens the magazine that details Azula's return. She reads a highly embellished story about a kidnapping that Azula and her father both tell in tandem. Ty Lee is not mentioned, thankfully. But who would talk about the girl who left her fiancée and went home with another girl. Now she is dating Suki and has been for some time now. She is even going to the same college as her best friend slash girlfriend.

A college as far away from Caldera as they could manage. They are going to Ba Sing Se.

"Tell me what really happened," orders a voice behind Ty Lee. She screams until she sees Suki standing there. "I know I said you didn't have to talk about it, but she's back now and I need to know."

Ty Lee sighs and gestures at her sister's empty bed. Suki sits down on it across from her girlfriend.

"I ran away with her. I told you that."

"It took me two weeks to catch up with you."

"It was two weird weeks. She was… shaken, I guess, or maybe crazy. Yeah, I'd call her crazy. Which is probably why she asked me to marry her. We were gonna elope before you found me."

"You told me that."

"Because that's it. Nothing special happened. She never told me about the girl she screamed in her sleep about and she never told me why she was running. I just know her story she's telling now is a lie. But… I'm worried about her. She's so hungry for power that it would take a lot to make her run from her crown. What if what she ran from is still here?"

"I don't know," Suki says, shrugging.

"The last night I was really _with her_, proposal or not, was when we had sex in a motel. It was really beautiful and the beauty got crushed," Ty Lee says, the same words she always has expressed. "Do you ever feel like our whole lives have been planned out for us? That we don't have a choice in what happens?"

Suki furrows her brow. Ty Lee knows she does not often—or ever—talk about philosophy, but seeing Azula pop up and then vanish over and over again has made her wonder if she is stuck on a painful predetermined path.

"Did you get an invitation?" Suki asks, reaching into her purse and pulling out an envelope with a broken royal seal on it. "There's a huge ball celebrating her return to… safety, he calls it, I guess."

"Even if I have an invitation, I'm not going. I don't think she ever wants to see me again. For all she knows I left her when she needed me most."

"You left her so that you could keep her secrets. No one found her thanks to you and your surprisingly closed lips. I never knew you to keep a secret in your life, so she should be grateful."

"I don't think Azula is capable of being grateful."

"Good point," Suki admits.

"Have fun at the ball," Ty Lee says, forcing herself to smile. "Do you think Azula will come back to school?"

"I don't know," Suki replies, yet again shrugging. Ty Lee hates that she does not care about Princess Azula for reasons mostly unknown to her.

"I hope she does," Ty Lee says.

She does not know why.

* * *

Ty Lee watches her sisters shop for the ball, get dressed for it, and go to it in style. They ask Ty Lee a few times if she wants to go, but she declines. She doubts she is _really _invited.

Instead of attending the grandest party in years, Ty Lee stays home and flips through a bridal catalogue. She keeps thinking about the wedding that might have been, obsessing over the past.

A knock on the door interrupts her wallowing.

Ty Lee skitters down the stairs, opens the door and sees the last person on Earth she would expect. It is Mai.

"Why are _you _here?" asks Ty Lee, stunned. She then remembers her manners. "I'm sorry for how rude that sounded. I'm so happy to see you. Welcome to my home and why are you not at the ball with Azula? Isn't your dad her dad's advisor or something?"

"Well, Azula might not be my friend, but I still kind of don't hate her and I think she needs you right now. She's not doing so hot and it's pretty obvious, so I'm here to help out an old friend. You can call it Operation Fairy Godmother. I won't, because that's gross as fuck. I'm supposed to dress you up and get you to that palace. Only, you better keep hidden, because her dad will totally find an excuse to have you arrested if he sees you near his daughter again."

"Yeah, I'm kinda tired of risking my life for Azula. I do it way too often," Ty Lee says, even though she thinks she would throw herself in front of a thousand bullets for that horrible girl.

"Come on. You know she's your true love or whatever," Mai says. She points at her car, a beautiful, sleek black one that makes Ty Lee softly sigh. It is the sexiest car she has ever seen, she must admit.

Ty Lee follows Mai, who stops her on the driveway and reaches inside. She pulls out a pink dress with glitter that she finds to be hideous, and a matching mask with tacky feathers. On top of that, she picks up glistening pink pumps.

"Do you like your outfit? I think it's the ugliest thing I've ever seen, but I figured it was your style," Mai says, and Ty Lee can only excitedly nod.

Ty Lee grabs the clothes and hurries inside to change. She touches up her makeup as Mai succumbs to the boredom of waiting. At last, Ty Lee's look is completed, her braid tied into an elegant bun, the mask disguising her but the bubblegum pink glitter giving her away to anyone close to her.

"I look amazing," Ty Lee says, her heart swelling. She has never been more excited. "Mai, let's go."

"Finally," groans the bored girl. She stands up and Ty Lee follows her to the car.

Ty Lee sits down in the passenger seat and lets Mai drive her through Caldera. The city glitters with neon lights and steel buildings and Ty Lee has never seen something so unbelievably beautiful. She rolls down the window and lets the wind rustle through her bangs and sting her face.

She has never felt so exhilarated.

* * *

When Ty Lee arrives at the ball, she sees a thousand people in lovely masks and beautiful formal attire. She walks across the dance floor of the palace—a political building rented out for this event—and a guy grabs her by the arm.

She dances with him and a few others until the party freezes. Fire Lord Ozai has walked to the balcony above the floor below, a replica of the demolished Royal Plaza.

"I am holding this party to celebrate the return of my daughter from the clutches of terrorists. I hope you all enjoy this pleasurable night in her honor," he says. Ozai adds a few grandiose words about the importance of family and how the entire Fire Nation is his family—that he is the father of all of his subjects, not just his daughter.

After he speaks, Azula walks out, without a mask, and stands at the railing.

"Thank you," she purrs, and she goes into a speech that Ty Lee knows she did not write.

When Azula leaves the stage, Ty Lee ducks through the partygoers and hurries to find her. She finds the princess in an empty office, sitting alone.

"You're alive," Ty Lee says, removing her mask. Azula averts her eyes, her lips pursed. "I needed to see you. Even if we can't be together, which I'm beginning to think we can't…"

"I think you would have been a beautiful bride in a world where you were not a coward," Azula coldly says, her voice freezing Ty Lee's blood. The pressure of the ice inside of her veins makes her ache.

"Please dance with me. Just one dance and then I'll leave forever," Ty Lee says, holding out her hand.

"Fine," Azula says, stepping down from the desk and beginning to sway with the music. She and Ty Lee spin and Ty Lee thinks it is glorious.

"Azula," whispers Ty Lee, "I should have been braver, and I should have asked you why you were so broken and what you were running from. Please tell me."

Princess Azula slows their dance. Ty Lee now sees her surroundings, but she can only look at the girl holding her waist.

"I was running away from home," Azula says softly. "I never wanted to see my father again, to be honest. But he found me. I knew he would catch up eventually. Maybe I should be brave and ask you why you left me."

"Suki caught up to me. I left with her so that she wouldn't find you," Ty Lee says. "Thank you for giving me a chance to explain. Believe me; I kept your secrets."

"You don't know my secrets," Azula whispers. "You don't know any of them."

"I know the ones I'm a part of," Ty Lee says, pressing herself against the princess. "And I love you. I love you so much and I will never stop loving you."

"Good to know," Azula softly replies.

Ty Lee tenderly kisses her.

After midnight, Azula disappears and Ty Lee vanishes and they do not see each other for the rest of the summer.

* * *

**Book Two: Senior Year**

* * *

**Part One: Fall**

* * *

Azula attends the first day of her senior year feeling more uncomfortable than she ever has.

She drifts through the corridors surrounded by people but completely alone. They whisper about how shattered and damaged she must be after her terrifying experience as a captive. That is a lie, of course, but she will stick to it until her dying day.

At lunch, she sits alone in the corner, partially masked by the shadows of a column. Across the room, the cheerleaders do not acknowledge her existence. When she looks at Ty Lee, she quickly averts her eyes. She gets up after a few moments of being stared at and trying not to stare at her former fiancée, lacking an appetite, and wanders through the halls. When she finds the bulletin board of sign-up sheets, she wonders if she wants to join the cheerleading squad again.

Azula forces herself to lift the pen and sign up for pro-bending. Then she scrawls her name on the paper already adorned with the other cheerleaders. She blinks back tears when she turns around and sees a girl with dark lips and black nail polish and coconut sized headphones draped over her neck.

"Mai," Azula whispers. She wonders what happened to her commanding regal voice.

"You look depressing," Mai states, holding back a laugh. "You can sit with me and Jet and Katara if you want."

"You lost me at Katara," Azula remarks with a sneer. "I thought you hated her."

"_You _hated her, and I used to be your groveling little follower. She's actually not that bad now that she found good music and started shaving," Mai replies, and Azula cannot refuse.

She does not have any other friends.

Azula follows Mai and sits down at her table. Jet, her off and on again boyfriend who she ran off with when Azula ditched her for Ty Lee. Katara is reading and not paying any attention to her disgusting Water Tribe food.

"Princess Azula, welcome to the Loser Club," says Mai.

Wonderful.


	27. Chapter 27

"How was going back to school?" inquires the Fire Lord. The feigned interest is extremely evident in his voice. He can't _not _sound scary and he can't sound empathetic. Maybe he just doesn't want to be perceived as anything but harsh and brutal.

Azula stands in what once was a royal palace with her school uniform still on and her hair a mess that she does not care to fix anymore. She is no longer allowed to be unattended, and it is only worse that Ozai must pretend to care when in front of the world. Azula sits down on an old, glossy bench and sets her backpack on her lap.

"Fine," says Azula. _Terrible_, is the best word for it, but she does not have the desire to talk. She remembers when her father was her favorite person in the world. She had sixteen years of that, but now she thinks she hates him. Or maybe he hates her for running away like she did. Either way, things will never be the same between the Fire Lord and his heir apparent.

"I need to know more than 'fine'," he growls, which means he is either trying to force their relationship or trying to force words out of her.

"Do you not have important diplomatic meetings?" Azula asks very quietly, afraid to say such bluntness so loudly to him.

"Not at the moment," he says, straining forgiveness. So, it is the forcing of the relationship.

Azula frowns, but she does not protest. "Everyone is uncomfortable around me and so my only friends are Mai, her arrogant jerk of a boyfriend and my former worst enemy. My classes are fine but my teachers look at me like I'm wounded, which is worse than people looking at me like I am insane."

"You have two years left. You will live," he says, which does not surprise Azula.

"I know," Azula replies, setting her backpack beside her and crossing her legs. "I suppose I should never have run away then. Please do not look at me like that. No one is here but us and so we have no need to pretend."

He does not look pleased. She used to grovel as much as anyone else, but now she knows he will never be proud of her again and she simply wants to push old limits she never would have passed.

"You should pick up extracurricular activities again. I want you to go to college even if you have your future lined up for you. People respect you more if you are well-educated."

Azula _does _fear that tone. She also knows she will do what he says regardless of her bitter feelings.

"I can look at what is offered," Azula stiffly says, avoiding eye contact. "I do want to be successful, even if my actions have not recently reflected it."

He seems skeptical about her response, but if he wants full honesty, he should not use intimidation so often. The world does not tend to take kindly to Ozai's mannerisms, but the Fire Nation does not protest the way the other nations do.

Azula knows why she feels so resentful, but she has never missed the beautiful past as much as she does today. She smiles at her father and means it. Usually, she would call it deliberate charm but she thinks she could use at least one person on her side. Other than three people she hates.

"You should probably avoid cheerleading again."

"I have no intentions of rejoining that world. People don't see me as very cheery anymore. I think probending would be my preference," Azula continues, keeping flat and clinical as she has since she returned this summer. Emotions are what made her so weak that she ran off and ruined everything for herself.

He does not reply to her.

* * *

At home, after sunset, the night is still hot. Azula wonders what it would be like to live somewhere cold. The Earth Kingdom would be interesting.

But, no, she thinks she is grounded until forever. Her father will not let her out of his sight until the day he dies and perhaps she deserves that.

She sets an empty tiny paper cup on the glistening bathroom counter. Azula uncaps a tube of toothpaste and squeezes some inside, then shakes in a sprinkle of baking soda, then pours in a dash of hydrogen peroxide and lastly turns on the faucet to add a little water.

Azula looks at her vacant expression and smeared make-up in the mirror before she stirs it with her toothbrush and sets a timer on her phone for two minutes.

As she begins to scrub her teeth, she regrets not finding a way to distract herself. All she thinks about while she is left alone to her thoughts for the duration of the timer is how everyone looked at her, how the masquerade felt and smelled, how tomorrow will come quickly and it will probably be as painful as today.

Life sucks.

And then you die.

Life sucks and then you die.

Mai was right about that all along.

* * *

Ty Lee hates the emotion of hate. She tries to see the best in absolutely everything, but she cannot find a single good thing about sharing so many classes with Azula.

Kids might be uncomfortable around the formerly popular girl, but Ty Lee can hardly fathom the awkwardness. She knows Azula was not kidnapped and knows she is not quite damaged, but she also knows that their attempt at eloping was broken at best and she knows that Azula is not allowed to go anywhere near her. Ty Lee probably would be executed if she tried to borrow a pencil. Fire Lord Ozai will not lose his daughter to her again.

She sits in her boring physics class and tries not to think about the fact that Azula always sits at the same desk in this classroom. This is where they first met and fell in love when Ty Lee's bangs went up in flames during a chemistry lab.

Azula does not look at her. The worst part is that it does not seem deliberate or strange. Ty Lee just feels like she does not exist to her true love anymore.

In her literature class, she draws a smiley face on the reading quiz because she certainly does not know any of the answers (she did not do the assignment), and sees Azula focused attentively on her neat, beautiful notes. Her hair is very shiny today.

At lunch two periods later, Ty Lee sits with her cheerleader friends and keeps stealing glances at Azula. She does not look happy to be with Katara, Mai and Jet. Ty Lee does not know why she would be. Mai might be a good friend to her but Katara has been her worst enemy for years. She glares whenever Katara talks.

Ty Lee wonders what they whisper about way across the cafeteria.

She leans against her locker and catches a glimpse of Azula signing up for four different activates. It makes her smile since it is so like that Azula she knows, adores and loves.

At the end of the day, she gets in her car and considers going home before deciding she will recklessly follow her heart again.

* * *

Azula escapes her driver and is shoved into the arms of a bending master. He clearly is tasked to watch her like an eagle-hawk. She cannot escape him as she glances around at her team of two other kids. Katara and that sensitive but supposedly handsome boy who has probably destroyed his good looks by growing a mustache.

She could not possibly hate these two people more, but they do a good job of supporting her while she wins the game.

(Alright, maybe Katara is incredible at waterbending but it is her _only _redeeming quality.)

* * *

When Azula steps away from her practice and sees that no one is here to pick her up right away. She walks to the doors regardless but freezes when she sees a girl in fashionable gym clothes who has not taken off the neon tape around her knuckles.

Ty Lee holds a pink lanyard with her car keys on it, spinning it around her hand as she stands by the front doors. Azula screws her courage to the sticking post and approaches her ex-fiancée.

"You look like you want to talk to me," Azula says, trying to meet Ty Lee's eyes. She keeps averting them, slipping out of Azula's grasp again and again.

Ty Lee finally calms her heartbeat enough to say the words she has been practicing in her head while she trained in the gym and avoided looking at the probending practice.

"I think about you every day. I've thought about you every hour since…" Ty Lee trails off. _Since forever _seems like the appropriate answer, but she is not sure if it is the right one to say. "Since summer. It's good to see you, anyway, even if…"

Azula gives nothing but a barely noticeable shrug of her shoulders.

"That's unfortunate for you," she says frigidly and then she rushes out of the doors.

Ty Lee squeezes her eyes shut and sighs.

Why does she pursue this nightmare?

Why?


	28. Chapter 28

In the spring of every year, Sozin High divides its population into groups of fifteen and sends them to work on parts of a project for one week. It always fits a certain theme and ends with an educational field trip. This year's theme is natural disasters and this year, Azula gets stuck in a classroom with the girl she was forbidden to even look at again.

Azula knows her father would want her to ascertain a royal order to change her assignment. However, she cannot bring herself to do it and instead decides, if he finds out, to tell him that she wanted to behave herself and not draw attention after her kidnapping stunt.

From her lips, he would believe it.

And, if anything, it is the fault of the headmistress, not Ty Lee.

She sits down. Her assigned desk is unsurprisingly next to her old girlfriend's. It was clearly done by someone who misinterpreted their distance as a rift in a friendship. The teachers often intervene by pairing fighting students on projects.

The two girls sit in a prolonged silence before Ty Lee finally faces Azula and smiles.

"That's a really nice color on you," she chirps.

Azula looks her up and down. "It's my school uniform. I wear it every day."

"But it's a nice color on you. It always has been," Ty Lee says without missing a beat. "All colors are nice colors on you, actually, but, I really like you in red."

Princess Azula swallows a small chunk of her pride and admits, "You are right about that. I do look wonderful in red."

"And plaid suits you great."

"It does," Azula purrs. She clears her throat and focuses on the whiteboard after noticing her dewy eyes. Missing Ty Lee is pointless; she can get mindless compliments from anyone.

But she still does; she cannot help it.

Ty Lee works up her courage and says, "The fight is after school."

"The fight?" asks Azula, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Ty Lee swallows and tries to remain brave. "At the gym, remember? It's a no-bending tournament, but benders can participate if they don't cheat. I think you should come."

Azula regally sighs and says, "I am only allowed to do approved after school activities."

Ty Lee smirks. "Well, probending practice is cancelled so that all the kids can watch or be in the ring," Ty Lee says, smiling brightly. She _knows _Azula will not pass up this chance.

"I will go," Azula asserts, meaning it.

Ty Lee must bow her head and look to the right to hide her mirth.

* * *

After school, Azula reports to the gym. She stares at the board in the crowded room for a long few minutes before Katara shows up and gently nudges her towards the sign-up table.

"You should give it a go," Katara says. "You're pretty reliant on fire. Try."

Azula sighs. Well, _now _she has to do it to prove Katara wrong. She shuffles forward and signs her name. A lanky teenage boy writes it up on the board. She walks to the locker rooms to change.

Her eyes rest on the shower where she fucked a girl with a ring pop not long ago. It was one of the last times she was truly happy.

Azula looks away and gets changed.

* * *

"Ty Lee," Azula declares, a brutal but sexy order, "get your cute little ass up here."

The acrobat cannot deny her. She pushes herself up into the ring and adjusts the tape around her fingers. When she looks up, she gazes briefly into the glorious golden eyes she has loved for longer than she can remember. Once upon a time, she knows she hated Azula, but she does not remember what that felt like.

"Let's go," Ty Lee chirps, adjusting her stance.

Azula lunges forward and does not hold back when she fights. Ty Lee dodges as fast as she can, trying to stay light on her feet. Azula pursues her. Blood sprays from Ty Lee's mouth after a fist hits her. She knocks that arm of Azula's numb by hitting the proper point.

Taking on Ty Lee in a fistfight is the most foolish of moves, but Azula has done it anyway.

Azula keeps going, even though Ty Lee's head spins. She lands more punches. Ty Lee hits twice more but misses the pressure points from the flurry from Azula.

Is this a lack of love or a presence of it? Ty Lee does not know.

She leans back and Suki grabs her by the arm.

"She's coming in wild. Hit her with a left hook," orders the cheerleader directly into Ty Lee's ear. "I've never seen her so emotional."

Ty Lee touches her aching jaw. "Yeah. I haven't either. It's not pretty."

"Go, go, go," orders Suki, and Ty Lee stands up.

She runs back at Azula.

Neither girl leaves the ring as beautiful as they went into it.

* * *

Azula walks home battered. Her father is occupied and she slips past him before he can see the marks on her skin. She lies down on her bed and sets her phone on her stomach. It lies silent for a few minutes until it begins to buzz with a thousand texts from Ty Lee.

Princess Azula deletes each one without reading them.

* * *

In the morning, Azula sculpts a volcano with Ty Lee.

Their hands touch for a brief moment and her heart flutters.

Azula cannot breathe for a second and it scares her.

* * *

The next afternoon, Azula and Ty Lee sit beside each other during a documentary.

They steal glances until Azula daringly sets her hand on Ty Lee's knee.

Both girls shiver.

* * *

The day after the documentary, school lets out early to watch a Royal Speech. Tomorrow they go on the whole school field trip to volunteer with hurricane relief in the small fishing towns north of Caldera. Azula is not enthused about it but she knows it will look good to the public.

Azula sneaks away from the Royal Plaza and hides beneath the balcony. Ty Lee waits there for her. They kiss a thousand times before Ozai begins to talk. But they ignore him and speak only to each other.

"That fight…" Ty Lee trails off. "That fight…" She takes a breath. "Do you hate me, princess?"

Azula shakes her head. "It would be easy to say I hate you, but that would be a lie."

Ty Lee smiles from the relief. Her heart soars.

She whispers to her princess, "We had something, didn't we?"

Azula does not hesitate to reply, "Yes. We had something."

Princess Azula leans in to kiss Ty Lee but a sudden outburst from the crowd interrupts the action. Screams, the sound of a crash. Azula looks up and sees a body falling from the Balcony, spiraling uncontrollably to hit the ground with a _crunch_.

Princess Azula's eyes widen.

She runs forward, punching and shoving people out of the way.

"Father!" she screams, although the rational part of her mind knows it is too late.

This is her fault. This is all her fault for sneaking around with Ty Lee.

Fate is punishing her for her indiscretions by taking her father away.

* * *

After the smoke mostly clears, Azula sits very still on an ancient wooden chair in the former Fire Nation Royal Palace. Nothing makes sense and she does not want to deal with the logistics that will be thrown at her. She fixes her gaze past the three government officials speaking to her, looking right through them instead of at them. They try to talk to her and gain her attention but do not know where to begin.

Finally, the one with greying hair says, "We need to get to work immediately. This isn't like an Earth Kingdom presidency where there is a backup for interim. Our lines of command are very clearly defined; the eldest and closest descendent or relative of the Fire Lord takes the crown."

"Not my father," Azula whispers, shaking her head and recalling the death of Azulon. "He has an older brother."

The same man says, "Prince Iroh turned down the crown."

It abruptly occurs to Azula. "I have an older brother too."

"He was… disowned, princess. Of course, if you take the crown you can abdicate it to him or Iroh, if that would please you."

"Do you not realize that I have been through a lot lately?" Azula snaps. "I am in no state of mind to choose who rules the Fire Nation and its Colonies. Two hours ago my biggest concerns were the upcoming probending tournament and if I should get back together with my ex-girlfriend. I may be clever and poised but I _truly _am not prepared for this."

"Your highness, if I may speak freely, no child is prepared for the loss of a parent, much less taking the throne of a great Nation."

"I want to talk to my Uncle," Azula decides.

"He and your brother are on their way as we speak."

"Good." Azula shakily stands and flees to the palace library.

She presses her back to the wall and begins to sob uncontrollably.


	29. Chapter 29

Azula never has been happy to see her Uncle and brother, but today she is. She does not know what to make of what happened and she crumbles on the sofa, barely holding back tears once they walk through the door and stand silently in her home.

Iroh notes four things upon walking in. The first is someone turned every photograph in the house face down. The second is the broken glass shielding the fireplace, cracks radiating from the impact point of a fist. The third is that his niece's eyes are red and puffy. The fourth is that she is starting to cry again.

He goes to her and wraps her in his arms. When she accepts the hug, he knows the situation must be dire.

"It will be fine. I will stay here with you until you are finished with school."

"I want to be Fire Lord," Azula says.

Iroh says calmly and assuredly, "You will be. That is the law, according to my brother's plans. You're just underage and need a guardian."

"I'm ready to be Fire Lord," Azula says between sudden sobs. She crumbles onto the floor. "Don't institutionalize me again. I will have you executed if you dare."

"I don't think you're mentally unwell. I think you have had something horrible happen to you," Iroh says, patting her shoulder. She brushes his hand away.

"You're glad he's dead! You always hated him!" screams Azula, forcing him to struggle not to step back. He knows he needs to stay strong in front of her.

"That is not entirely true," says Iroh calmly. "We never got along, but I am not glad he is dead. It saddens me deeply."

"Ugh!" screams Azula, kicking over a coat stand. It slams onto the floor with a clatter. "Save it. I will _never _give you this crown and you know it."

"I do," replies Iroh, still staying infuriatingly tranquil. "But you do need help recovering from your father's death and setting up to take the title of Fire Lord. I will help you. Zuko should be here for the funeral and stay longer if he must."

Azula nods. She knows she needs help even if she is loath to admit it. "Okay. Okay, Uncle, I will accept that."

"You should still finish your education. College might not be an option, but I believe, with help, you can run the country and still graduate," Iroh says gently. "I have faith in you."

Azula whispers, "I have faith in myself, Uncle."

* * *

In the morning, Azula gets dressed in her uniform and picks up her backpack. She walks into the kitchen and does not find her father; she sees Iroh making tea. Ozai always made coffee. Azula sits down at the kitchen table and begins to cry again. Thank Agni for waterproof mascara.

"Why are you getting ready for school?" Iroh inquires, setting a cup of tea in front of her. She does not plan to touch it.

"I need to keep going like things are normal," Azula says. "I cannot take the time to grieve right now. I have more important things to do."

But then she begins to cry her eyes out and she drops her backpack.

Iroh says, "Why don't you go back to sleep? Or do some firebending exercises to calm down? I am here for you all day and you can have any friends over. Anybody or anything you need."

"You've chosen a convenient time to become kind to me," Azula says sharply. She stands up and walks back to her bedroom, removing the little plaid skirt and the polo and shimmying beneath her covers in nothing but her underclothes.

After she finishes crying, Azula calls Ty Lee.

Her sort-of girlfriend comes over within minutes. Iroh invites her in and Ty Lee walks to sit down in Azula's bedroom.

"I'm sorry about your father," Ty Lee whispers.

"I have heard that too often in the past few days," Azula says weakly. "And, Ty Lee, I don't think we can be together anymore."

"Then why did you call me?"

"I needed to talk to you," Azula says, sitting up in her bed. "I wished for him to be dead. I wished for him to be dead because of you."

"Because of me?" whispers Ty Lee, wounded to the soul.

"I wanted to be with you." Azula sighed. "But he was abusive too, and cruel, and he hurt me but he was my father and I should've never chosen you over him."

"He hurt you?" Ty Lee asks.

Azula removes her clothes to show the marks. She never has done it before in her life, but she is too distraught to make good choices. Ty Lee sees the burns and feels sick. They are even worse than the one Ozai left on Zuko's face.

"Does it surprise you to see this? Of course he hurt me, and worse than just this. I thought the whole world knew but felt too bad for me to say anything about it," says Azula. "That—"

"Is that why you ran away with me? Because of him?" Ty Lee whispers, remembering how shaken Azula was.

"You do not need to know. We should stay apart like he thought we should," Azula says. "I have Katara and Mai and Jet and they are enough for me. I just want to have this one day with you before I let you go forever."

Ty Lee knows it will not be forever. They never can stay apart. The two girls collide over and over again without reprieve. Nothing can divide them. That is why Ty Lee believes they are destined to love each other.

"We can have this one day?" Ty Lee asks, sitting down on Azula's bed. She turns to face her beautiful princess, the one she cannot bear to lose again.

"I need someone," Azula purrs, kneeling and pulling Ty Lee into a kiss. When it breaks, she whispers, "I need someone so bad. Be with me."

Ty Lee could never deny the princess. She leans in and moves aside the blanket before she straddles Azula. She pulls her into a kiss that makes their teeth smash together. Their hips now fused and linked and their cores throbbing, it is easy to forget.

"I'll kiss every single scar he left on you, and I'll try to make the emotional ones better for a few minutes," Ty Lee whispers in a husky tone.

Azula shivers. The princess remains very still as Ty Lee slides her hand up the smooth leg of her counterpart, and her skin breaks out in goosebumps. She feels the electricity in her core.

Ty Lee gasps when Azula tears off her school blouse. She palms one of her breasts and Ty Lee moans. Ty Lee slips her hand down and into Azula's underwear. Azula sucks on her neck and her fingers freeze up. She moves them again when Azula releases her.

Things progress at a rate that never fails to thrill them.

Iroh knocks on the door and Azula pulls away from Ty Lee. Ty Lee screams when she realizes she lost her shirt.

"I'm not wearing any clothes!" Azula shouts.

"I'll be in in a minute," Iroh says and Azula tries to figure out what to do.

Azula picks up her own blouse off of the floor and tosses it to Ty Lee. She wraps a robe around herself and opens the door.

"I brought you and Ty Lee tea," says Iroh and Azula decides she needs to get him out of this house. On the other hand, she could use his help for once. "I hope you both like it."

Ty Lee takes her cup and smiles. "It smells wonderful! I'm excited to try it!"

Iroh brightly, brightly smiles.

Azula sits back down on her bed and sighs.

So much for sex.

* * *

Azula does not have time to grieve at the funeral. Two days later, she had to attend her coronation. After not getting out of bed for ages, it felt strange to be made up for the most important day of her life.

She knew it would happen one day, but she did not expect it so soon.

On Monday, she would go back to school as the Fire Lord. It would not do wonders for her already deteriorated social life. Why could she only think about that? Think about being a loser or an outcast. She should think about the legacy her father left for her.

Azula stares at the mirror and hated the person she sees.

The quiet girl decorating her does not make it any better.

Azula thinks she might be broken again and it terrifies her. She promised herself she would never go back to how she was when she had to be sent to an asylum.

But, here she is, doing just that.

How can she stop it from happening?

How can she prevent the madness from consuming her?

She does not know.


	30. Chapter 30

The lawyer's office smells like cold. Not exactly a scent. It smells like an air conditioner, which is a necessity in a sweltering Caldera spring. As the weather heats up even further in a simmering city, Azula lets the beads of sweat slide down her sticky skin without paying them any mind. A daze overcame her days ago and has yet to fade.

This kind of thing is not supposed to happen to someone so young, so perfect, so _her_. Bad things happen to _other people_, not Princess Azula.

The fact that she had been pushing him away for the first time in her life only makes it worse. Guilt collides with the grief, creating an emotion that Azula never felt and never wanted to feel.

Iroh goes inside to attend the meeting. Azula opted to remain in the waiting room and let them all decide what to do with her. She wants the crown; she made that clear and Iroh is an honest enough man that he would not stab her in the back. Yet, she knows that making these arrangements would make the truth set in, which is the last thing Azula ever wanted.

No one has been speaking to Azula lately, the same way they were after they found out she was 'kidnapped' and she became a pitied pariah. This situation can only make that worse.

As she fiddles with her phone, the soon-to-be Fire Lord sees a text light up the smooth, shiny screen. Azula daringly looks at the text from Ty Lee: _Plz meet me Sushi King._

She wants desperately to say no, but she has very little adolescence left to live. In no time, she will be Fire Lord and probably never slow dance at Sushi King ever again.

Azula turns to her brother. "I'm going for a walk," she lies.

He does not look like he cares much.

* * *

When Azula arrives at Sushi King, she sees Ty Lee sitting inside through the window. She sips a drink and listens to the jukebox. Azula pushes open the door and walks inside, feeling the relieving air conditioning blast over her face and through her hair.

She heads inside and sits down across from Ty Lee. The soon-to-be Fire Lord receives the first smile in days. Everyone falls into exaggerated expressions of grief the moment they lay eyes on her, and so Ty Lee is very refreshing.

"This old place is good to meet at," Azula says, running her fingertips over the familiar cracks in the tables. They gloss them over and use expensive tablecloths now, but she still feels them from when this restaurant was a dive.

"I want to tell you that I love you," Ty Lee says nervously.

"I have heard that too much lately," Azula snarls, suddenly uninterested in this date. "Everyone pities me and loves me and wants me to feel better. I feel _nothing_. Nothing. So everyone should do me a favor and shut up about my father."

"I won't talk about it anymore then," Ty Lee replies, adjusting the tie on her braid. "We can discuss anything, I guess. It doesn't really matter what."

"Oh, like you and your cute little friends abandoning me?" Azula demands, savoring the anger she feels, the way the adrenaline makes her heart pulse.

"I wasn't allowed to see you anymore. I was scared. It was a good thing and you have new friends now," Ty Lee says, smiling. Azula wants to slap it off of her face.

"Maybe we can talk about you leaving me at the altar. That's a good story too," Azula says coolly, gritting her teeth at the end of her sentence.

"I wanted to protect us both," Ty Lee says, now hanging her head. The shame engulfs her.

"Or maybe," says Azula, softening her tone, "we could talk about where we go from here."

"Where do you want to go from here? I think I have to listen to the Fire Lord," Ty Lee says, clasping her hands together and offering a faithful smile.

"We could… sort of be together," Azula says, shrugging.

The waiter arrives and serves food. Azula glares at it.

Ty Lee explains, "I ordered your favorite while I was waiting. I hope you don't mind."

Azula picks up chopsticks. "I don't. It was a wise move of you."

Ty Lee smiles more genuinely now.

"So, uh, sort of?" Ty Lee asks, batting her eyelashes.

"No strings attached," Azula says. "And I _mean _that. We're a little bit together but nothing official, no commitment and we can leave each other at any time or date someone else simultaneously. Maybe not that last one. We are exclusive with no strings attached."

Ty Lee hates that idea, but if it lets her see Azula again, she would do it. She would cross the ocean in a rowboat to be able to listen to her princess talk and gaze into her golden eyes. They glisten so beautifully in the carefully tuned candlelight of Sushi King.

"Yes. That's a good idea," says Ty Lee enthusiastically, nodding and hoping she does not do so too fiercely. Thankfully, Azula does not seem to notice.

"No strings attached," repeats Azula.

It must mean something to her. Ty Lee decides it might be a decent way to let their relationship evolve once more.

Azula just wants to be with her confusing possible love without committing to her or truthfully dating her.

* * *

Azula sits in her empty home with Ty Lee. They sit in her bedroom, set up for a sleepover if anyone decides to barge in like Iroh or Zuko. Those two have _no _manners.

"How are you?" Ty Lee asks, touching Azula's hand. It sends a flood of heat that Azula feels with no one else.

"Asking myself: when does the madness all end?" Azula asks. Ty Lee staggers, struck speechless by the sudden candor.

"I don't—I don't know what to do or say. It's all really hard to do anything about from the outside, y'know?" Ty Lee says, plastering a smile on her face and hoping it will speak for itself.

"No one does. Starting on Saturday morning, I run an empire but also have to make time to study for Chemistry. It is daunting even to someone as accomplished as me."

Ty Lee just kisses her, unable to help beyond that. Azula reluctantly returns, apathetically; it feels like kissing a drunk person. Ty Lee slips backwards and pulls off her clothes, slowly, article by article. Azula remains in place, watching, but not giving much of a reaction.

When Ty Lee leans back and kisses her, their tongues war and Azula lightly brushes her hand over Ty Lee's right breast before pressing her palm against Ty Lee's back, pulling her ex-girlfriend's naked body closer to her clothed one.

Ty Lee makes the boldest move she has in a long time and picks Azula up by the hips, pulling her onto the bed. They sit there, Azula straddling her, as Ty Lee presses her fingers into Azula's skin and the soon-to-be Fire Lord arches her back and presses their lips tightly together from above.

Azula undoes part of her shirt but does not bother getting the rest of the way undressed. They shift so easily, as if rotating around each other with some gravitational pull, and Azula sits back on the bed on her knees, Ty Lee swinging her leg over the side of her hip. Azula presses one palm to Ty Lee's back and clings to her shoulder with the other.

They kiss and bite and cling to each other until Azula forgets the nightmare she lives every day.


	31. Chapter 31

Azula thinks she might be falling apart. She hides it. She is good at hiding it. It seems to get worse every day. Being stuck in class makes her want to scream. Azula hates being here, but, then again, she hates being everywhere at this point.

Her head is collapsing and her lungs are collapsing and her life is collapsing.

She scrawls a note and stands up, leaving the classroom without bothering to ask for permission. What good is it to be Fire Lord if you have to bow to some petty excuse for an authority figure? The Fire Lord subtly leaves the note on Ty Lee's desk and escapes the classroom.

As she walks down the hallways, she tries to take in a few deep breaths.

But she cannot hold herself together.

Everyone stares at her twice as much as when they all thought she had been kidnapped. She avoids her group of loser friends and skirts around everyone else who ever had any interest in her. And she has not slept in a week.

Once she reaches the locker room, she sits down. She fixes her eyes on the bland light red wall and tries to make her thoughts into an empty void.

Finally, Ty Lee walks in to meet her with a sly smile.

"I love that I can ditch class because I'm no-strings-attached-ing with the Fire Lord," chimes the cheerleader, scampering across the tile floor and sitting on the bench beside her FWB.

"Well, no one ever will dare argue with me." Azula smirks. "I _am _the most powerful person alive." She does like the sound of that, even if it came into her life by agonizing heartache.

Ty Lee beams and says cheerily, "Honestly, no-strings-attached-ing has just as many perks as being Fire Lady."

"Perks?" asks Azula. Then she inquires in addition, "Fire Lady?"

"The perks are skipping class, striking fear into the hearts of the unworthy. And Fire Lady because we almost got married and stuff last year. Then I'd be Fire Lady. But it's fine we didn't get married. I'm happy the way we are."

Azula thinks Ty Lee gushes too vivaciously; it means she probably _is _unhappy with the way they are. Yet, the Fire Lord does not correct her because she does not want to face the possibility of reopening their previous relationship. It killed her father. Out of pure respect for him and remorse for her mistake, she will never fall in love with Ty Lee again.

"I suppose it is for the best that you like our… arrangement." Azula tries to smile but cannot.

After a few moments of silence save for breathing, Azula looks at her with a glint in her eyes that makes Ty Lee's knees go weak. Ty Lee wavers and ends up rooted in place. Prompting her to move again, Azula puts her hands onto Ty Lee's waist and pulls her down to the bench. As they linger there, lust is the prominent emotion in their eyes.

Azula smirks at Ty Lee. "So, any idea what to do while we avoid class?"

Her sultry caresses Ty Lee's ears and goes straight to her naughty place. Because she is perfect and this is perfect and worth it at any cost.

Azula tackles her. It takes Ty Lee by surprise; she usually has the upper hand in physical situations but she never lets it get that way with Azula. The Fire Lord's mouth slams against hers, causing their teeth to collide. Pain is the last thing on their minds, however.

Ty Lee's tongue slips into Azula's mouth and the Fire Lord's eagerly meets hers. Azula's leg slips in between Ty Lee's and without thinking Ty Lee grinds against her leg. Azula moans into her mouth and returns the favor.

They catch each other's gaze. Azula's blazing eyes bore into hers as the Fire Lord grabs her hair and pulls their lips back together. Their kiss holds passion, adoration… and love. It is there. It is there and it will not go away no matter how much they try to change it.

That thought, and that tenderness in the kiss that should have been fierce makes the Fire Lord pull away. Ty Lee sits up and tries to figure it out. She does not know what she did wrong.

"I will see you later," says Azula, standing up.

She leaves swiftly and Ty Lee stares at the door long after she vanishes into the hallway.

* * *

After the encounter with Azula and avoiding meeting her eyes throughout her classes, Ty Lee at last gets to go to cheer practice. She looks forward to it all day and cannot stop grinning once she gets there. She dresses so quickly that she ends up stretching alone on the school lawn…

And she admittedly ogles the football team.

Someone comes up behind Ty Lee and jabs her on both sides beneath the ribs. It makes her scream and jump and Suki laughs good naturedly. Ty Lee playfully glowers up at her.

"Do you even support the Fire Ferrets?" asks Suki as she scowls at the practicing team. She looks back down and cocks an eyebrow at Ty Lee. "I don't think we're very good, and honestly the players could be sexier."

Ty Lee grins sweetly at her best friend, honey hued eyes alight, and chirps, "Of course I support the Fire Ferrets. I'm a cheerleader, not a cheerliar."

That makes Suki start laughing. Ty Lee feels a weird twisting inside of her when she thinks about the fact that Azula _never _laughs, unless it is a cold display of amusement at the pain of others. Admittedly, that wicked cackle is hot, but Ty Lee wishes her no-strings-attached would have more of a sense of humor. Like Suki.

Why can Ty Lee not just blend their best qualities together into the perfect person? That should be a thing. Engineers need to get _on that_.

"You're fun," Suki says, sitting down and starting to stretch beside Ty Lee. "And you're my best friend."

_And we could be more than that, _Suki thinks. She keeps her mouth shut about it, however, since she thinks she only wants that in order to spite Fire Lord Azula. Suki never was interested in girls and so she dismisses the thoughts she has about trying to rekindle their relationship.

Ty Lee smiles all afternoon, until cheer practice ends and she again starts to ruminate about her encounter with Azula.

* * *

Azula sits cross-legged on her soft bed in her room late at night, doing homework not due for another two weeks. She tries to keep herself busy with things like this, keep herself from thinking about her father or her newfound responsibilities as Fire Lord.

Not to mention how much she thinks she might be falling apart.

She has been having nightmares about her mother.

_A lot of them._

Suddenly, she hears a knock on her window. She lights one of her palms, prepared to strike, and strides over. She throws it open when she sees the honey-hued eyes outside.

Ty Lee steps in. Azula has no idea how she got up here, but it is mildly impressive.

"What are you doing here?" asks the Fire Lord, looking Ty Lee up and down.

"I decided to climb up the side of your building to visit you," says Ty Lee, quite proud of her ascent to the _penthouse_. "I was just worried about earlier so I decided to… I couldn't sleep."

"I am very attracted to that dedication," purrs Azula, stepping closer to her midnight visitor. "Nothing is wrong between us. I just thought better of having sex at school."

Ty Lee knows it is a lie, but she would never call the Fire Lord out. In fact, she would never call Azula out before she was one of the four leaders of the world.

"Can I spend the night?" Ty Lee asks, her heart thudding uncontrollably in her chest.

"Yes, I will allow it," Azula says, shutting her window and walking back over to sit on her bed. "Do you remember the story of Aki and Eun?"

"Oh, the movie is so romantic!" Ty Lee eagerly gushes, setting a hand over her heart.

It is a story about two teenagers, back when the Fire Nation was split into four domains with four rulers, instead of one united empire. Aki was a teenager, as was Eun, but they were both the rulers of the two strongest domains. They fell in love with each other and built a grand library and statues and were giddy little teenagers. Then, they broke up, as most adolescents do, and Eun invaded Aki's Domain, burning their library—and the whole capital city—to the ground.

"It is," admits Azula, a little ashamed to like a romance. "I was just thinking about how teenage relationships go terribly with important world politics."

Ty Lee shrugs. "I bet there were tons of teenage rulership relationships that didn't end with wars. Right? I'm not really a good student."

Azula smirks.

"The only one I know of is Aki and Eun," says Azula, sliding her books into her backpack and propping it up against her bedside table. "What we are doing is very ill-advised."

"We can stop," says Ty Lee, admittedly crestfallen.

"Oh, I have no intentions of _stopping_. I just want to give that disclaimer for when this all goes horrifically wrong," Azula purrs, batting her eyelashes.

Ty Lee smiles and lies down in bed beside her.

They sleep beside each other but not with each other.

And, as much as it kills her to admit it even to herself, Azula sleeps peacefully for the first time since her father died.

* * *

In the morning, after her alarm goes off, Azula gathers clothes for a shower, stepping lightly around her bedroom. She tries not to wake Ty Lee, but the cheerleader wakes up and sits up.

"Oh," says Ty Lee. "Do you—do you want me to leave?"

Fire Lord Azula freezes in place, deep in thought.

"Um, if you, if you want you can shower with me," she stammers, blushing. "Saves water, you know? Not that I _need _to, but it is… I should support the environment as Fire Lord."

Ty Lee smiles. She cannot help it. "Yup. I'd love to!"

Slowly, Ty Lee gets out of bed and they cross the hall into the bathroom. Zuko and Iroh are nowhere to be seen, thankfully. Ty Lee does _not _want to get caught, even if Azula outranks them. It still feels too awkward.

The Fire Lord has a shower that doubles as a sauna. It fills half of the overlarge room and Ty Lee thinks with the faux natural stone features it could pass for a waterfall.

Azula turns on the water and undresses, stepping in first. Ty Lee does not hesitate to follow right behind her. Azula slides the shower door closed and Ty Lee pounces, smiling all the way. She slams her mouth to Azula's and pins her against the wall.

Thankfully, the Fire Lord obliges, wrapping her arms around Ty Lee's neck and her legs around her waist. To Ty Lee, it feels like a rush to have that much power.

Their tongues enjoy a playful dance for a few minutes under the warm rush of water, shrouded partially by the thick steam. They both are wet now, and not just from the water above them. Ty Lee removes one slippery arm from around Azula's waist and slides her hand up across her beautiful collarbone, then down to her breasts. Azula tightens her hold on Ty Lee's neck, knotting her fingers in her hair to secure control again. Ty Lee decides to risk it and squeeze her breast and Azula moans into her mouth.

Ty Lee moves her hand down the Fire Lord's stomach and finally reaches her original destination. The cheerleader's wet fingers slip between her folds and easily glide into her wet entrance. Azula gasps out and breaks their fierce, desperate kiss for the first time yet, only to bury her face in Ty Lee's neck and bites down. Hard.

This time, Ty Lee gasps. She loves the sudden rush of pain and the deep connection between the two girls.

Azula starts to kiss her neck, causing Ty Lee's fingers to work faster inside her.

It is a perfect.

Ty Lee sneaks away before anyone sees her a very, very happy girl, leaving another very, very happy girl behind.


	32. Chapter 32

Before first period, Azula sips the strong caffeinated tea Iroh gave to her, leaving lipstick marks on the to-go mug. She glances in her locker mirror and fixes her mascara. Once her attention draws away from it, she sees Mai slumped on the ground with her huge headphones on. Azula sees that her best friend looks as poised but grim as ever, in her dark clothes that no longer attract people and instead repulse them.

Then again, Azula could wear anything and no longer attract people and instead repulse them.

Mai takes off her headphones and stands up. She asks dryly, "So, does the Fire Lord have a date to homecoming?"

Azula opens her locker so forcefully that two of her magnets shake loose and her _Support Sozin High Probending Team _paper flutters to the floor.

"I am not going with you," she says, scoffing at Mai's overconfidence.

Mai rolls her eyes and sighs exasperatedly. "You really do think everyone alive is in love with you, don't you? As you _should _have realized, I wasn't asking you."

Azula glares and pouts. She composes herself and demands with her arms crossed and back straight, "Then why are you asking? And don't say because _you're my friend_. You are not the girl talk type of friend."

"Because I saw you with Ty Lee. I thought she was avoiding you after the whole kidnapping."

"I do not have anything with Ty Lee," insists Azula. "A few moments together does not mean anything, Mai. Stop jumping to conclusions."

Mai rolls her eyes. "It's good if you have nothing with her. I'm sick of the girl."

Azula picks up her locker ornament and grabs her Chemistry book.

"Goodbye," she coldly says, striding away.

She is _tired _of Mai, and she does not know how they used to be best friends.

* * *

Suki sits in the locker room after cheer practice and looks at a dazed Ty Lee. The room smells like cotton candy perfume and the stench of sweat, and Suki pays no mind to any of the other girls she coaches. She glances over her shoulder and sees who Ty Lee is cheerily texting. Fire Lord Azula. Who else?

Honestly, Suki thought they had crumbled. Their relationship should have ended a long, long time ago.

"Azula, huh?" asks Suki, not bothering to use her formal title. She does not deserve it.

Ty Lee squirms uncomfortably, knowing Suki has never approved of her relationship. "I'm kind of seeing Azula again, but not really. We're more like friends with benefits."

Suki rubs her lips together, hoping to keep quiet, but she cannot.

"You deserve to be with someone who doesn't want to hide you. You deserve to be with someone who will happily take you to homecoming and flood people's newsfeeds with cute pictures and kiss in public where anyone can see. You're a really good person, Ty Lee. An amazing person who shouldn't be made to feel like she's nothing more than a dirty secret."

Ty Lee gazes into Suki's eyes for a moment. They are truly beautiful, and they glimmer with passion, deeply caring about her best friend since they were little kids.

But Ty Lee peels her gaze away and stands up, slinging her backpack over her shoulder.

"I'll see you later," Ty Lee says, waving with a huge smile. She says goodbye to all of the other cheerleaders and flees the room.

Suki stares after her, already bitter about what Azula will do to her best friend.

* * *

Homecoming ought to be a blast for every teenager. Two weeks after Suki catches Ty Lee texting Azula and Mai confesses she knows what is going on, the whole school gathers on the bleachers and around them. The grass is damp with dew and the scent for miles is the stench of teenage hormones.

This year, Azula plays as the superstar in the huge probending game and Ty Lee cheers from the sidelines. They steal glances that they hope no one notices.

After the Fire Ferrets—of course—reign victorious, Azula dons her Fire Lord persona and gives a beautiful, articulate speech that every television channel and news site in the Fire Nation would be featuring for the next two days. Suki sees how starry-eyed Ty Lee is when she watches Azula give her speech.

"Do you think you'll be Fire Lady?" Suki whispers, touching Ty Lee's cold but sweaty hand. She does not understand the weird warm feeling it gives her.

"I fantasize about it sometimes," Ty Lee admits, blushing fiercely at the confession. "I mean, I almost married her way back then, before everything got messy. We were gonna get married."

"But now she treats you like a sea slug," Suki says, now weaving her fingers with Ty Lee's. "I pretended to love you in the past. I just wanted to keep you away from her. But…" Suki finds she cannot say it. Ty Lee is looking at Azula. Suki needs to keep it to herself. She just does.

They go to their lockers and prepare in the bathroom, changing into beautiful dresses. Suki's is simple and dark blue. Ty Lee's is skimpy with frills. It speaks volumes about who they are.

"Do you remember when we were the loser outcasts? When… when everybody bullied us and we just had each other?" Suki asks, playing with the sleeve of her midnight dress.

"Yeah, but now we're the most popular girls in school. It's who I always was. I just got dragged down by trying to stand out and be different from my sisters and everybody else. I'm proud of who I am and I'm proud of having friends and being invited to every party and everybody looking at me like I'm so sexy. I'm proud, and I won't reminisce about me being a stupid kid who hated the idea of fitting in, just because she didn't get enough attention at home," Ty Lee rants, stunning Suki.

She never knew her best friend to be so articulate. It knocks her off-guard and Ty Lee moves on to her several layers of sparkly makeup and the ornate braid she puts her hair into. Suki simply straightens her own hair and adds a little eyeliner and lip gloss.

Suki steps out of the bathroom and knows Ty Lee will not pursue her.

Everyone gazes at Suki.

"You're a shoe-in for homecoming queen!" chirps Jin. "Now that Azula's like an outcast, you're basically unopposed!"

"Yeah," murmurs Suki, suddenly remembering fondly sitting alone at lunch, being ignored, focusing on martial arts and geeky hobbies.

It aches in a weird way, like remembering an amputated limb.

* * *

Ty Lee sees Azula on the dance floor. She looks incredible in her red and gold dress and flawless make-up. Her eyes sparkle in the dancing lights that illuminate the smoky room. Ty Lee smiles at her but knows better than to wave.

She watches Azula dance with Katara and laughs to herself when she remembers that Katara was Azula's worst enemy for years. She _hated _her. Then Ty Lee sees Mai with Jet and remembers when they were all friends. Everything was so simple. They were the most admired girls in school, but most importantly they were best friends and thought nothing could pry them apart.

But it could. Ty Lee and Azula loving each other destroyed so much. For the first time, Ty Lee wonders if it was ever worth it.

The songs go on and on. Ty Lee dances with various, eager boys, but she keeps making eye contact with Azula. They _know _they will meet up after the dance, which Ty Lee looks forward to. Azula has all the keys to the refurbished palace and they could hook up in a parliament chamber.

Suddenly, something bursts. Ty Lee sees the flashbangs and doubles back, knocking the boy rubbing her back out of the way. So much for worrying about homecoming queen; they are in the middle of an—an attack.

Fire—Fire Lord Ozai was killed. Ty Lee tries to crawl across the floor and protect Azula like she did last time, but she cannot see and cannot find her.

Instead, she sees a number of guards protecting the leader of the Fire Nation. Ty Lee sinks down, limp on the floor, and lets the professionals protect Azula.

She never has felt so helpless.

* * *

While the officials clean up the homecoming dance and take care of anyone injured, Azula sits in her hospital bed on the top floor in a luxurious private room, woozy from the pain meds and disoriented from the surgery. She is surprised to see that her first visitor is Katara.

It is thanks to Katara's connections at Yugoda Hope. She works as a volunteer healer there on the weekends and occasionally after school.

"Shouldn't you be at the dance? Or the rubble of it, I suppose," Azula purrs, shooting a swift but subtle glare at her former archenemy.

"I left before the attack happened, and I've been treating various people from the high school," Katara says. "There are only so many waterbenders in Caldera."

She sits down by Azula.

"You can leave. I'm fine," Azula says, already sick of the girl and her scent. "Burns heal fast and cuts are meaningless."

"I'll check back in later, then," Katara says, standing up and walking out.

* * *

Ty Lee visits next. She looks at the bandages on Azula and gasps, her hand pressed over her mouth.

"Stop panicking, and don't make it look like we're together," Azula snaps, rolling her eyes.

Ty Lee holds up a make-up bag, the one she brought to school to get ready for homecoming. She holds up a brush.

"Can I fix you up? You're kinda smudged from everything," anxiously says Ty Lee, hoping Azula will accept her offer.

"You may do my make-up," Azula says, sitting still—not that she has another choice—while Ty Lee decorates her face. She is sure she looks ridiculous, but she kisses Ty Lee once on the lips before the doctors come to take her to a second surgery.

Ty Lee takes the elevator down.

* * *

Azula regains some consciousness after the surgery. Her eyelids flutter open but she closes them again, since it feels painful to keep them open. She rests there and does not know how much time passes.

Then, she feels lips brush against hers. She expects it to be Ty Lee, but then she takes a quick peek and sees fawn Water Tribe skin. Now _that _is an interesting development.

Katara leaves.

Azula falls asleep for real this time.

* * *

Fire Lord Azula wakes up and expects to see advisors, but instead sees Katara again.

"Why are you here so often?" she fiercely demands, feeling sick. She hates this bitch, or so she thinks. She does lack friends other than Katara, Mai and Jet.

Katara calmly explains, "I'm a volunteer healer. You know that."

"I honestly do not listen much when you talk. I don't know why you keep visiting anyway. I have been awake more than once while you were here, and you have no just been making rounds."

Katara sits down.

"Well, you deserve a friend," she gently explains. "A _real _friend. Mai still has weird anger about you blowing her off for a year, Jet is an asshole, and Ty Lee just wants to jump your bones. I don't think you have other options."

Azula laughs, which turns quickly into pain. "Not quite a compliment. I honestly would have preferred if you just lied and said you were just doing your volunteer work like you're supposed to."

"Yeah." Katara shrugs.

"I was awake," Azula purrs, grabbing Katara's wrist to hold her in place. "I know what you did. But your little secret _might _be safe with me if you tell me _why_."

Katara blushes bright red against her dark skin. She admits, tone anxious and shy for once, "I just wanted to see what it was like."

Angrily, Azula snarls, "Kissing a girl?"

Katara wrings her hands and shakes her head.

"Kissing _you_."


	33. Chapter 33

Azula waits impatiently to be released from the hospital.

She is sick of this. Sick, sick, sick of not being sick but being _stuck_!

"I am _bored_," she complains to her Uncle. "Why to have to be here for two more days? I need to run or burn something or _anything _but lie in this bed. Just drive a spirits-damned truck over my face, please, I beg of you!"

Iroh continues sitting calmly with his book. Azula grabs the IV tube and melts it closed while grinding her teeth.

"You should probably remove that from your arm before any harmful substances enter your bloodstream," Iroh says placidly without looking up.

Azula yanks it out of her inner elbow as violently as possible, but it still does not satisfy her. She wonders if by nature that action does not hurt or if she is just so angry that she no longer is capable of feeling pain.

One of the four posted guards outside of her door walks into the room and asks, "Are you okay, your highness? I smelled burning plastic and—"

Azula cannot stop herself from throwing it at him. He narrowly dodges the huge metal apparatus and bag of saline solution that smashes against the ugly hospital wall.

After that outburst, the Fire Lord lies back down and continues seething. There should be no such thing as this intense level of misery.

"Do I have to _tell _you that you are _clearly dismissed_?" Azula viciously demands of the guard. He scurries out as if she lit him on fire. Which she almost did.

"Things are probably easiest here in the hospital," Iroh comments, completely unsolicited to Azula's great displeasure. "Once you are released you will have to look into these terror attacks, and I doubt you will have much freedom with the protection I am sure your cabinet will demand."

Azula squeezes her eyes shut and breathes out through her teeth. She always fantasized about being Fire Lord but now she finds that the job is not as glamorous as she thought. In fact, it is quite possibly the worst profession in the galaxy. She would have been better off working as a waitress runaway.

But, she supposes being Fire Lord has perks, and so she sighs and flips through the television channels again.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Sozin High, Ty Lee stares at her math homework feeling like it is written in a dead Water Tribe language. Sitting across from her, Suki focuses on her own paper and Ty Lee does not pipe up to ask for even more help.

The two best friends sit in room 321, the one belonging to the history teacher. It always is ice cold in there every single day of the year; he is from the Earth Kingdom and never acclimated to Caldera weather. So, Ty Lee shivers even under her loose crimson cardigan.

"The homework doesn't get done by you having a staring contest with it," teases Suki, tapping her pencil on Ty Lee's paper. "Do you need me to go over it again? I'd really be happy to help"

"Why are you such a good friend? I don't deserve that good of a friend." Ty Lee frowns at the scribbles and eraser marks on her assignment.

"Yes, you do," Suki insists vehemently, her eyes flashing. "Don't let anybody make you think you don't."

"The only person who makes me feel that way is myself. I know I'm really happy on the outside all the time and I try to be optimistic, but I think I love everybody in the whole world but myself." Ty Lee sets down her pencil; there is no way she can do math at the moment.

Suki sits at the desk and stares for a few moments, deep in thought. She wishes she knew the exact words to say to make Ty Lee see what a beautiful person she is.

"I love you, you know that, right?" Suki says. "I love you because you see the light in others and make them feel like that's all you see."

Ty Lee cannot help but smile at those beautiful words. She now knows for certain that she does not deserve Suki.

"Of course I know that," Ty Lee says, scooching her chair over to her best friend.

"Can I kiss you?" Suki asks, sounding nervous. That is so rare for the confident and strong woman who Ty Lee cannot help but admire.

Ty Lee leaves her hanging for painful ages before she says passionately, "Yes. Yes, you can."

The moment she receives permission, Suki acts on her desire.

* * *

Azula sits in her plush, comfortable hospital bed with a dull fashion magazine, waiting for someone to come put a new IV in. She does not know if she hopes it is Katara or hopes it is not Katara. That confuses her far too much and she tries not to think about it. Focusing on the boring trends, however, is not much better.

This is her worst enemy she is wondering about. This is someone utterly obnoxious and entirely uninteresting. This is a distraction from the one romantic relationship she genuinely wants to put effort into building.

When the healer _is _Katara, she decides that she is unhappy but knows secretly she is pleased and nothing in the world is worse than that.

"You're almost out of this place," says Katara, sitting down at the end of the bed in the luxury hospital room. "Are you happy?"

"You're awfully casual," Azula purrs, loudly setting down her magazine on the bedside table. She cannot believe the nerve of this girl. She supposes there is a reason she hated Katara for years.

"Do I need to be more formal and reverent with the mighty Fire Lord?" Katara sarcastically asks, giving a mocking bow that makes Azula glare at her. The healer in training straightens her back and shakes her head at Azula.

The Fire Lord says sharply, drumming her terrifyingly long nails on the table, "I mean you are casual after our most recent encounter."

"That was a mistake." Katara frowns for a beat. "I think it was, at least."

Azula teasingly bats her eyelashes and croons, "Are you attracted to me?"

Katara huffs and states passionately, "I think you are a deplorable person."

Azula shakes her head and rolls her golden eyes. "That does not answer my question."

Katara stares at the paperwork she has to fill out. The words swim in front of her eyes as she tries to think of the right answer. To tell the truth, she does not think she knows herself and therefore cannot explain it to Azula.

"I'm confused," Katara decides firmly, looking up from the important clipboard.

Azula cannot believe this madness. "_You _kissed _me_."

"That doesn't mean I can't be confused. I think—I think you're beautiful on the outside and I've… thought about it before," Katara says, starting to suffocate. She is afraid of these feelings for a monster. They are not even feelings; they are more like instincts and impulses, which freaks her out more than if she was crazy enough to fall in love with this crazy nightmare of a girl.

"Oh." Azula smirks smugly, pleased with herself for being such a cruel heartthrob.

With fire in her ocean blue eyes, Katara clarifies fiercely, "But I'm _not _in love with you. I couldn't be if I tried."

Azula keeps smirking. Katara wants to break the clipboard over her knee. "But you would have sex with me, I am sure."

Katara scoffs. "I have _some _dignity left after that kiss."

Azula sets her palm over her heart and feigns offense. "I am Fire Lord."

"I don't consider that a selling point," Katara says, picking back up her pen.

Azula just laughs. Katara finishes filling out the paperwork she must do as a volunteer.

"I'll see you around," says the healer in training. She speaks in a cryptic tone that Azula immediately tries to decipher.

"Goodbye," Azula coldly says.

Katara leaves. Azula lies still for a few minutes before she decides she needs to get out of this place for at least a second; she needs long enough to gasp in fresh air. And there is someone she needs to talk to while so confused.

Azula picks up her phone from her pillow and sends the text.

* * *

Outside of the hospital, Ty Lee sits and sips coffee while she waits. She wonders if Azula will stand her up and so she tries not to think about it. Ty Lee just stares at all of the people walking by. Some of them glance at her while others do not notice her.

She has the sudden realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as her own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and messy young loves—an epic story that continues invisibly around her like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that she'll never know existed, in which she might appear only once, as an extra in the movie sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.

When she sees Azula, her heart soars. She might be attracted to Suki, maybe even in love with her, but no one she has ever dated or wanted has made her feel that way just with a look.

"I can't believe you really came," Ty Lee says.

"Of course I did. I needed out of that stifling place."

Ty Lee smiles. "Is there a reason you wanted to meet me?"

"I wanted to ask you if you would be my girlfriend. My official girlfriend who I escort to grandiose balls and let the paparazzi photograph me with."

"I—I'm so excited! Is there—is there a reason?"

"I realized that I am Fire Lord and can date whoever I want. If I could have an affair with a waterbender—for a hypothetical example—I certainly can justify dating a Fire Nation noblewoman."

"I'm so happy." Ty Lee leaps to her feet and hugs Azula. "But," she whispers in the Fire Lord's ear, "will this last? Do you really want me? Are you… are you really ready to be with me?"

"I will never leave you again."

Ty Lee squeaks nervously, "You've said that before."

Azula holds Ty Lee at arms' length. "Will you listen to me and know I am ready to say this for certain? Because I am Fire Lord and you ought to listen to me or I will imprison you."

"Yes, yes of course," Ty Lee says.

"I will be with you always and forever," says Azula. Ty Lee does not know what to think when she hears Azula of all people express such a powerful commitment.

"Always and forever?" Ty Lee asks breathlessly.

Azula charmingly replies, "Yes. Is that so surprising?"

Neglecting to answer that question for fear of offending the Fire Lord, "I think I've been waiting my whole life to hear those words from you," says Ty Lee. Tears swell in her eyes.

Azula takes in a deep breath of crisp, autumnal, non-recycled air, kisses Ty Lee, and sneaks back into the hospital.

Ty Lee turns around to face the street, her palm pressed over her racing and soaring heart, and starts walking down the sidewalk. Fallen leaves crunch beneath her designer boots. The lights of the city glow beneath the dark, cloudy night sky.

She floats on Cloud 9 through it all, not noticing a single detail, which is how it is so remarkably easy to take her by surprise and take her prisoner.

* * *

**AN: **I promised a cheesy soap opera and a cheesy soap opera isn't a cheesy soap opera without kidnappings, although this _is _part of an important plot arc and not just for kicks.


	34. Chapter 34

**_AN: _**_Remember when I said this story was about glitterati teens doing terrible things to each other? Azula does some terrible things this chapter. I promise wholeheartedly that this is endgame Tyzula, but Ty Lee is a flighty person and Azula is a psychopath and that is going to show. I hope you still enjoy the story and thank you for reading. It really makes me happy._

* * *

On Friday, Azula stands in the hospital lobby while she waits for her paperwork to finish. Her royal guard surrounds her, but that does not stop a volunteer healer from snagging her attention.

"So," says Katara's familiar voice as Azula walks into the lobby of the hospital, "you're finally released? That must be nice."

Azula rolls her eyes. "Yes. It is."

Could this girl be any more _boring_?

"I'll see you at probending practice."

"Am I cleared for it?"

Katara smiles and says, "I imagine you are if you want to be."

"Then I suppose I ought to decide," purrs the firebender, smirking at the waterbender.

Azula waves like a princess, not a Fire Lord, and walks out of the hospital with a formidable royal guard and calm uncle following.

Katara stares after her and contemplates just jumping off of a bridge.

* * *

On Saturday morning, Azula and Katara meet at probending practice and the coach pairs them off to spar. They always are, since they bend opposite elements. Katara gazes at Azula strangely, without that glint of competition in her cobalt eyes that had always been present before today. Azula does not know what to do about it, but she does not have time, since Katara starts the fight before Azula can make some kind of derisive comment.

The water flies at Azula and she dodges it in a flawlessly executed aerial cartwheel. It briefly reminds her of someone else and Azula loses her focus for a moment, long enough for Katara to almost nail her with a dagger of ice. Azula runs forward with flames at either side of her, building walls of fire that certainly are not regulation.

"You don't have to go for the kill!" Azula snarls at her partner.

"You don't either!" Katara stifles the flames with a powerful wave. Azula punches through it, making it break around her. The move is impressive enough to knock Katara off guard for a moment. Azula lands a fist of fire on Katara's stone uniform. She knows where to hit to not be disqualified, even if she always kind of wanted to nail someone in the face for once.

That would not be in the probending spirit, she supposes.

They are close together as their fight narrows. Fire is blocked by water; water is blocked by fire. Katara drenches Azula's perfect hair and earns a blast from Azula's palm that knocks her to the floor. Katara jumps up without using her arms and lands a stinging hit from a water whip on Azula's cheek.

It is against the rules but Azula is not a wimp and she will not call Katara out on it.

She runs forward and tackles Katara. That definitely does not help them prepare for a match, but Azula is prompted by the pain on her face. Katara gasps, the winds knocked out of her, and she locks eyes with Azula.

They linger there for too long, staring at each other, both breathless.

"When's the wedding, ladies?" snaps the coach. "Switch partners if you're going to be slackers together!"

Azula glowers at Katara for getting her in trouble—not that the Fire Lord could ever truly be penalized—as she walks away to pair up with one of the other waterbenders on the team.

* * *

After practice, Katara wrings out her hair, bends the water off of herself and gets dressed. Once she finishes putting herself together, she turns to Fire Lord Azula, whom is packing her gym bag.

"Can we talk?" Katara asks, sitting on the bench across from her.

"I guess." Azula studies her nails, disinterested.

"Are you still with Ty Lee?" inquires Katara, hating herself for even asking. She could not ever be in a relationship with Azula, could she?

The Fire Lord easily replies, "Yes, but I suppose I haven't heard from her in two days."

Katara asks, scalding, "Do you tire of people that quickly?"

"I did not say I tired of her. I said she has not spoken to me since I gave her my commitment, which means I am open to other offers," Azula purrs, shooting a smirk Katara's way.

"I don't know if I'm offering."

"I don't know if I would accept."

"I'm sorry I kissed you. It was wrong," Katara decides to say, hoping it will lay things to rest.

"But I bet it felt right to you," Azula asks smoothly, batting her eyelashes.

Katara's surge of desire makes her panic.

"I have to go," she says hastily.

Azula smirks. "Keep running. Run, run, run, little waterbender."

Katara grabs her bag and bolts.

* * *

The news of the kidnapping comes in the form of a ransom note.

Ty Lee's parents cry. Suki punches a hole in her bedroom wall. Azula sits, her back against the wall, and tries to figure out why life punishes her. She tugs at her hair and closes her eyes and shudders from the force of her own obsessive thoughts.

Azula walks into her bedroom and starts burning everything within sight. Slowly, she crumbles and begins to sob, tears pouring down onto her floor as she rests her head on the carpet.

Iroh stands in the doorway, but he says nothing.

Azula stares at her toe, the chipped blood red nail polish the only thing she can see as she slowly begins to look right through it. She loses her hold on this world and collapses into her own mind. If anyone did try to talk to her, she would be incapable of responding.

The tears become silent, but her body still shakes.

This is the end of herself, the end of her sanity, the end of her happiness.

She can feel it.

And it hurts worse than death, worse than birth, worse than rebirth. It sears like a burn and pangs like a livid hunger.

She breaks.

* * *

That evening, Azula stands stiffly in front of a number of pointless politicians and vivaciously orders, "You are going to make finding her a priority or I will exile you."

"Your highness," says Councilor Hoang, "she is a noblewoman, yes, but she is of no political importance. Her parents can afford to search for her on their own."

"I am engaged to her. She will be Fire Lady. That makes her a person of political importance, and it is _probably _why she was kidnapped in the first place."

"While a fiancée or an actual Fire Lady is not of exact political importance, I can see that you might be willing to negotiate with these terrorists in order to save her. So, I will assemble a task force, and that is the best the Fire Nation can do."

Azula purrs, "I will accept it, but they best not fail, or they will suffer unimaginable wrath."

The grown men all look so nervous.

It satisfies her deeply.

* * *

In the middle of the school hall, Katara stops Azula.

This should be good.

"Are we into each other?" Katara daringly asks.

"I'm engaged," Azula says, and Katara's eyes widen. She had no idea, no idea at all. Katara assumes it to be someone from another land, and maybe that does not matter. If it is a political engagement, Azula will be open and available.

Probably just to Ty Lee.

Probably Katara should stop thinking about dating someone she despises.

Katara settles for ignoring the news and stating, "That doesn't answer my question."

"Maybe we are." Azula shrugs. "It does not make much of a difference to me."

Katara frowns. "I'll see you," she says, and she vanishes.

Azula pays it no mind and resumes walking to class.

Someone grabs Azula's arm in the hallway and she pivots, about to punch a fistful of fire into the accoster's face. She stops just short when she sees the Head Cheerleader.

"Did you have anything to do with what happened to her?" Suki viciously demands.

"You are going to have to be more specific."

"You know what I'm talking about. Her, Ty Lee, the person you make miserable."

"I do not make her miserable, and I have organized a capable task force to find her. I had nothing to do with what happened to her."

"Maybe you didn't arrange it, but she's not important enough to be a target. You put the bullseye on her back."

"By being in a relationship with her? It isn't as if any of this was intentional."

"I don't get why she ever got back with you. I just don't."

"Because she would be nothing if I didn't love her. She knows that."

"If anything bad happens to her, I will wring your neck."

Azula hesitates; she hears something in Suki's voice and sees it in her eyes.

"You are in love with her," Azula says.

Suki softens slightly, to Azula's surprise. "Is it that obvious?"

"Yes," Azula purrs. She looks Suki up and down. "She'll be home. Nothing will happen to her or I will burn the world to ashes. When she comes home, stay away from her. The last thing I need is a damned love triangle."

Suki shakes her head.

"I don't answer to you," and she walks away.

Azula scowls.

* * *

After school, Azula skips cheer practice and leans against the bleachers while she waits for the royal guard she ditched under pretense of cheerleading. She stands by Mai, but her best friend since childhood ditches her once her ride arrives. Azula expects to be alone, but someone partially expected takes Mai's place: Katara, of course.

"Are we going to have another discussion about your confused feelings?"

"No. I'm tired of talking," Katara says.

Azula opens her mouth to snap something snarky but Katara cuts her off with a kiss. She looks both ways and finds that they are completely alone. Azula pushes her up against the wall and Katara gives a small nod. She knows she wants this.

Fire Lord Azula brushes her lips across Katara's neck and the waterbender shivers. Their lips meet again, this time so lightly that it tantalizes them both. Katara grabs onto Azula's arms and pulls her closer until they are pressed up against each other.

Katara bites down gently on Azula's lower lip. Her nails are imperfect and chipped and a pale blue and they brush against Azula's arms as she reaches up to drape her arms over Azula's shoulders, meeting, locked, behind her ivory neck. Azula's perfectly manicured crimson nails dig into Katara's back as she pulls her away from the wall and they slide to the floor.

Azula falls on top of her and locks their lips. She closes her eyes and pretends she is not with the other woman while Ty Lee is somewhere in danger or worse. But she forgets it as their lips crush against each other again and again, their breasts pressing against each other.

In a flash, Azula sits up and removes her own clothes. Katara fumbles as she does the same. Azula grabs her trembling hands and holds them until they stop shaking.

She straddles Katara and the waterbender can only look up at something that both confuses and sickens and delights her and she does not know what to make of it. Azula slides her soft fingers down, down, down and rubs two of them against somewhere that makes Katara's legs jerk.

And they both try to forget so many things that all they can do is keep their minds blank, filled with only the images they see at the instant.

When it is over, and they both get dressed and silently part ways, Azula picks up her phone. She knows she is not supposed to, but she picks up her phone and touches her finger to the most-used contact.

Her eyes are downcast as she types without looking.

_'__I know I've never said this before in my life, but I'm sorry.'_

And Azula strides out of the room, pretending to be well and fine.

* * *

**_AN: _**_I usually never ask, but please review this chapter if you can. We're so close to a thousand and that would be so amazing! :)_


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